As Japan’s men’s basketball team attempts to rebound from some losses at the Paris Olympics, one player’s presence on the team has generated some buzz among surprised fans.
Josh Hawkinson, a U.S.-born player from Shoreline, Washington, is the team’s sole white player — with no ancestral roots in Japan. Though his presence has been confusing for some, Hawkinson, who made his debut with the team Saturday, is a Japanese citizen who has played in the country for several years and has said he has fallen in love with the culture.
“I’m really excited to be a part of it, and there’s only a handful of people who get the opportunity to be Olympians,” he told NBC affiliate KING of Seattle about playing for Team Japan.
Hawkinson, the starting center, played most recently Tuesday in a game against France, which his team lost 94-90. Hawkinson recorded 16 points, 8 rebounds and an assist, earning praise for his impressive play against France’s Victor Wembanyama, one of the most dominant players in the NBA.
Social media users have also been jokingly comparing him to white characters in movies set in Japan, including Tom Cruise’s “Last Samurai” and Cosmo Jarvis’ character, John Blackthorne, an English pilot, in the feudal Japan-based series “Shōgun.”
But as the international rules go, national basketball teams are allowed one naturalized player on each 12-man roster. And Hawkinson became a naturalized citizen last year after having played in Japan’s B.League since 2017. While international audiences are just becoming acquainted with him, Japanese fans have embraced Hawkinson as he has played with the Toyotsu Fighting Eagles and the Shinshu Brave Warriors. He’s currently on the Sun Rockers Shibuya, for whom he averaged 17 points and 8 rebounds last season.
“It’s been an incredible opportunity and an experience just kind of trying to raise the level of Japanese basketball and seeing how much the game has grown there,” Hawkinson told KING. “So I’m really proud of the fact that I’m a part of that.”
Transitioning to playing in Japan was initially difficult, Hawkinson said, and he admitted feeling homesick for the U.S. in those early days. But he said a mindset change helped him lean in to his new surroundings.
“At first I was living my life in Japan like I was still an American, but that’s the wrong way to do it,” he said. “You need to embrace the culture, embrace the language, embrace the people, and that’s when I started to love Japan.”
Now, Hawkinson is living it up. He has learned Japanese, and, of course, he dived right into the cuisine.
“I knew they had ramen and sushi and those type of things, but I didn’t know the depth of how good Japanese food is,” he said in an interview on “The Jeremy Mills Podcast,” adding that some of his favorite dishes are wagyu beef and karaage chicken, or Japanese fried chicken. “I’m a fan of takoyaki, which is like … a pancake batter ball with little chunks of octopus and a sweet glaze on the top.”
Before his time in Japan, Hawkinson was largely known for his successful college career at Washington State. He completed his college career with 40 double-doubles, the third most in the school’s history.
Hawkinson is joined on Team Japan by several recognizable basketball players, including Los Angeles Lakers power forward Rui Hachimura. Former NBA player Yuta Watanabe is also on the squad, as well as college basketball icon Keisei Tominaga, a former guard at the University of Nebraska.
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