By Associated Press Reporter
Published: 08:51 BST, 21 June 2019 | Updated: 08:54 BST, 21 June 2019
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Rui Hachimura became the first player from Japan to get chosen in the first round of the NBA draft, taken with the No 9 overall pick by the Washington Wizards on Thursday night.
The 6-foot-8, 235-pound forward averaged a team-leading 19.7 points and 6.5 rebounds last season as a junior at Gonzaga, where he was the West Coast Conference player of the year.
'It means a lot for me, for my family,' Hachimura said. 'For Japan basketball and my country, it's a big thing.'
Rui Hachimura became the first Japanese player taken in the first round of the NBA draft
The power forward was congratulated by a member of his family after being picked
The only other Japanese player drafted in NBA history was Yasutaka Okayama, who went 171st overall in 1981. He never appeared in a regular-season game, something just two players from the country have done: Yuta Tabuse for the Phoenix Suns in 2004-05, and Yuta Watanabe for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2018-19.
Hachimura said he heard about his new home from Watanabe, a
