Rui Hachimura of the Washington Wizards, who has been absent since the opening, has returned to the battlefield from the match against Orlando Magic on January 9. In the seven games up to the 21st, he averaged 8.1 points and 3.7 rebounds. On the 17th, 19th and 21st, it is showing signs of rising with double-digit scores for three consecutive games.
It’s been a long way so far. Hachimura, who participated in the Tokyo Olympics as a member of the Japanese national team last summer, then missed all Wizards training camps and pre-season games that started in late September for “personal reasons.” It was reported that he entered Washington DC in mid-October, but he had to wait until the 40th race of the season for his first appearance this season.
Hachimura has not publicly disclosed the specific cause of the long-term withdrawal, but after returning, he has the impression that he is playing with warm support from his teammates and related parties. How does the local media see such uniform number 8? I asked Eva Wallace, a female writer who became a Wizards reporter for the Washington Post from the middle of the 2019-20 season, which is the first year for Hachimura.
“It seemed natural that I didn’t want to talk about what happened.”
It wasn’t a big surprise to me that the base left the battlefield for a long time for “personal reasons”. Prior to becoming a Wizards journalist, he was also in charge of college basketball and had experience covering bases during the Gonzaga University era. The base in college was shy and quiet, and it was hard work to get the word out of him.
I knew that I had a quiet personality, so it seemed natural that I didn’t want to talk about what happened after such a long withdrawal. And at that point, I already knew how hard it would be for a player to get that much attention to stay in the media’s line of sight.
After the return battle with Orlando Magic, the base at the press conference after a long time was laughing a lot. I didn’t go into too much detail, but the most memorable thing there was the phrase, “I learned that I love basketball.” Does that mean you never really liked this sport? It was a very interesting word and I felt like it was telling something.
Surprise that no information about Hachimura was leaked
The only surprise I had about this was that no information was leaked about the situation during the departure of the base. At the NBA, almost all information is leaked from agents and publicly communicated by reporters such as Adrian Wojnarowski (on ESPN.com) and Shams Sharania (of The Athletic).
