Hachimura proving himself on World Cup stage

I am looking forward to tomorrow night's game against the U.S. to see how Rui plays against his future NBA competition. U.S. team is weaker because most of the superstars didn't want to play.

To my surprise the few J ppl I know had very high expectations before the comp and thought they'd at least qualify for the 2nd round. Bit of a reality check.

Rui or not, Japan's still a second tier team.

They didn't know that basketball's massive in Europe (arguably the 2nd most popular team sport on the continent, played in all schools, quality domestic and euro leagues etc) especially in the Balkans, Italy, Spain, France, Greece, turkey, Russia and the former Soviet republics even Germany.

Turkey and the Czech were never going to be a walk in the park.

Add the us, oz, Canada, the argies and a couple of others and you get that Japan never stood a chance (media hype around Watanabe and Rui perhaps?).

good, good. but imo, he still needs to go to the next level. there,s many great teams and players out there. Japanese need to raise their standards. still a long way to go. keep up the hard work, all the best for Rui and Japan,s national team.