Tennis star Naomi Osaka and BTS’ Suga joined a host of celebrities in Japan on Thursday for an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and Washington Wizards. Osaka later revealed on Twitter what she said to the K-pop idol when they met.
Suga, whose full name is Min Yoongi, was the Warriors’ guest of honor at Saitama Super Arena north of Tokyo, meeting with players preparing for their preseason games against the Wizards. The South Korean actor was approached during the game by one of his fans, who turned out to be an Olympic athlete and Japanese tennis star from Haiti Osaka.
“lol so I told Suga Autumn Leaves is a great song,” Osaka tweeted on Friday. She followed him with another tweet which read, “I don’t know why, but that was the only thing I planned to say to him if we ever met,” followed by the skull and crossbones emoji and the face with tears emoji.
“Autumn Leaves” is a song by BTS, written and produced by Suga, and featured on the Seoul-based group’s 2015 EP. The most beautiful moments in life Pt. 2.
Osaka has never been shy about letting her fans know that she’s a K-pop fan and a member of the BTS ARMY, an acronym that stands for “Adorable Representative MC for Youth.” The 23-year-old athlete tweeted another song from BTS in 2019 titled “Make It Right,” co-written with Ed Sheeran.
“You haven’t heard it from me, but that’s the best song on the album lol,” Osaka tweeted back then.
She also attended one of her concerts in Los Angeles in 2021 and posted several videos from the show on her Instagram.
Osaka wasn’t the only Suga fan at Thursday’s game. Several Warriors players also appear to be fans of the Korean rapper including Steph Curry, Jordan Poole and Andre Iguodala.
Before the game, BTS shared a photo of Suga holding up a custom number 3 jersey originally owned by Poole. The photo was retweeted by Curry, who wrote: “Love the SUGA jersey!! See you soon.”
Videos of Suga talking about his music with Iguodala were posted by NBA Japan, and Poole was also spotted with a signed BTS album as a gift.
Curry recorded a video with Suga for his children Riley and Ryan, who are reportedly big fans, and later gifted Suga his own shoes from the game.
The Warriors play the Wizards in two 2022 preseason games this weekend at the Arena in Saitama, Japan. This is both teams’ first visit to the country and the 15th and 16th NBA games ever to be played in Japan.
TheCurrentNews has reached out to a representative from Osaka, Suga and the Warriors for comment.
