By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Lille, France – Yuta Watanabe and his teammates gave their all, came close to a major Olympic upset against France, and definitely won the hearts of many basketball fans around the world with their never-ending fighting spirit.
Despite the defeat, this can be considered one of the best performances by the Japanese national team in history.
“Yeah, we competed for 45 minutes. I was actually dying out there today; I was so tired. I just came back from a calf injury, but you know, guys like Kawamura, Josh… I mean, after Rui got ejected, Hugh came in, made some great plays, you know, Yoshi, Mako—they were just playing hard defense against them. I’m just so proud of them; I’m so proud of us. We fought for 45 minutes; that’s not easy, but we did it. So, I’m so proud,” former NBA player Watanabe said.
A calf injury kept him from participating throughout the whole preparation process, but that didn’t stop him from leaving his heart on the court in Lille.
“It’s better now. You know, it was a hard loss. I couldn’t practice much over the last two months, but just being out there playing basketball is fine. I just got to enjoy this moment.”
Watanabe recently returned home after six years in the NBA to play for Chiba Jets, and the game against France is another sign of Japanese basketball’s growth, which threatens to become a dynasty in Asian basketball.
“We’re going to try, obviously, but we’re still growing. This is not a goal or anything; this is still the beginning of our journey. So, this loss, you know, it hurts me right now; it hurts my team, but it’s a growing pain. We just got to get through it.”
He also touched on his and Rui Hachimura’s future endeavors with the national team.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously we know him. Just having him is going to help a lot. And I know he wants to play too. So, we’re still in this tournament. We don’t really think we’ll talk about the next tournament yet. But, you know, we love playing with him. It seems like he’s enjoying playing with us too. So, we’ll see,” Watanabe concluded.