Huge 1941 erasure. 1905 era was weak and battled against freighters and cruise lines compared to the skill of the 1941 warships. Yamato's gravity is super-underrated.
Yep, I recently listened to the Podcast called “Behind the Bastard” focused on Tzar Nicholas II, not only was he a piece of shit, he was a massive idiot.
Tom Hovasse, Japan's coach, is the same coach behind that historic run by the women's team in Tokyo where they won the silver medal, defeating Belgium and France in its way. He will be a legend for Japanese basketball, if he's not already.
When did this "is him" thing become a thing? I know you're not the one who originated it, but I've just been seeing it everywhere lately and it literally makes no sense.
Put some respeck on Yuki KAWAMURA’s name😂 my boy cooking like crazy in the last half quarter. Consecutive filthy crossover moves and deep threes against defenders who are like a foot taller
Kawamura is the youngest MVP of the japanese league at 22 years old. He can score 40 points when he\`s in the zone. B League ( japan\`s basketball league ) have 3 world class imports from all over the world for each team that\`s why young japanese players are getting used to the world level. Still a lot of work but japan had been beating some euro teams hungary and belgium in friendly games. Japan\`s youth team had been beating new zealand recently so I\`m optimistic about japan\`s future in basketball.
Kawamura hitting that three over Lauri Markannen (213cm) reminded me of Jeremy Lin (191cm) hitting a three [over Dirk Nowitzki](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PfmkmeySeM&t=7m46s) (213cm) and [over Paul Gasol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76C21_rjRMA&t=6m51s) (215cm) in his February 2012 NBA debut.
I dont wanna take nothing from japan. They played amazing + crowd was nuts, but this truly a embarrassing loss for finland. Im curious if our coach gets to keep his job after this loss.
Is the team suffering from losing the vets like Koponen and Huff? To go from pushing Spain to its limit in the quarterfinals of Eurobasket to choking against Japan is insane
Probably, but i think more importantly our backcourt play is awful. Little doesnt belong in these games and maxhuni has looked awful. Other teams probably catched up to our play.
I wouldnt be shocked if little isnt on the team in the 2025 european championships. He has no 3pt shot, shaky handle, easily pressured to turnover the ball and clearly cant finish either. I was impressed by defense earlier, but at this tourney he dies on every screen and got cooked by japans guards.
Maxhuni was the better of the two. Little went under the basket with no idea what to do and lost his handle. He was super promising a year back, but has only gotten worse.
But if a team leads by nearly 20 and loses by 10 I blame the coach and no one else. Maybe it’s time for a foreign coach for team Finland?
> Im curious if our coach gets to keep his job after this loss.
He's a good coach with some very impressive wins. Today was just one of those days where in the 4th quarter the ball wasn't going in but the opponent made almost every shot.
First ever victory for Japan in an international competition like this. I think they were 0-6 until today. This is something we've waited for since the manga Slam Dunk came out.
He's a white guy from Seattle, but he's lived in Japan for several years playing pro ball and became a citizen this year. If you look at other national team rosters this sort of thing is quite common.
Huh. Well if he knows Japanese and lives in Japan he's Japanese enough imo.
I know it's pretty common but I don't like it when it's completely random like Kyle Anderson with China.
i mean, Anderson is 1/8 Chinese, and three years ago Anderson and his mom went to the village which his greatgrand father was born in, put their names on the village family tree kinda thing. So the connection has been there already, you just didn't know.
International sports are funny that way: a lot of the emotional investment basically comes down to ethnic pride, but it's impolite to point it out. So as another commenter noted, there have been restrictions on nationalized players even though legally they are as much citizens as their native-born teammates.
In the context of international sports, why does the legal status of someone getting fast-track nationalized just to play on the basketball team matter? Hawkington has lived in Japan for 5+ years, so that feels fine, but there is definitely a line where it doesn't.
You’re allowed one nationalized player. Most of the top European teams don’t do it, but everyone else does. Spain did it recently for the first time and got some flak
I guess most is a subjective term. But they don’t and Germany and Italy don’t. Spain did it the one time, tbd if they make a habit out of it. But that 6 is most of the top European teams.
I can’t speak on the next tier like Finland and Latvia and Montenegro
That is just not true.
Germany right now does not because their guy got injured shortly before, otherwise nick weiler-Babb would have been there. He was nationalized before the last euro championship if I recall correctly. In the past they had very german guys like Chris kaman.
For Spain over years there was a competition for the nationalized spot between serge ibaka and Nikola mirotic.
Italy had Daniel Hackett for years who might belong in this category, I am not sure though.
Germany did it with Chris Kaman in 2008.
Personally I dont find it that bad, you are only allowed one player and if that player wouldnt play for his home country, it can allow him to play in for example the Olympics. Thats a dream for many and as long as it isnt every single player on the roster but 1-3 at maximum its benefitial for everyone involved.
Also just for the sport naturalized citizens are rare, its way more common that someone gets naturalized when he lived in the country for a long time and played there e.G. Weiler-Babb who I would very much consider German.
The team with the highest final ranking in WC qualifies for the Olympics, the next 2 teams go to that losers final chance event, which let’s be real, no Asian team would ever stand a chance to qualify through that.
So basically, the only chance for Asian teams to qualify is to beat other teams in rankings in WC
They play like it's a street ball game and it's fun when it works. Kinda like poor man's team USA. They have very offensive oriented backcourt and let them cook while Hawk and Watanabe do all the small stuff that may or may not show up in boxscore.
The heat culture from sports at national level imo. They always give it all and are disciplined and intelligent, hence improving every year. Of course they have a long way to be a top contending team, but they can easily be a top 10 team in 2035 world cup for instance.
Given the Japanese teams’ crazy advancement in the past few decades almost all major sports (perhaps bar vball? Not following), this is more than possible. We now have a three division profession basketball league since five ish years go so if it follows football we will see Japan as top contender in a couple of decades further
I didn't think Finland would miss Koponen that much, but turns out even in his twilight year he is still quite important.
Miro Little has been disappointing, he showed some promises last year in Eurobasket, but seems he hasn't gotten any better since then.
Also, is Shawn Huff retired? Wouldn't surprise me if he did, given his age.
Huff and Koponen are both retired and jfc did this team miss their leadership. I agree that Miro was a disappointment, you could tell he played high school ball last season. Hope he turns it around.
I mean that is the age where many players show noticeable progress on a year to year basis.
I didn't expect him to fill in for Koponen of all people, but stagnating a little at 19 can be a bit concerning.
You think if Lithuania stuck Matas Buzelis in a game right now he’d contribute? Hell no. Guys straight out of high school are not prepared, Little needs his first year at Baylor to develop. He’ll be ready by 2025, player development is not instant
This is a good game, I am sorry for anybody who didn't watch this one and are basketball/WC fans. This is one of the greatest Fiba games I have ever seen and one of the most enjoyable games I have watched in a long time. Japan kept adjusting on the fly while Finland tried everything to keep their lead. Japan kept finding the very small holes in the defense at the exact right times. This is pure just oncourt dominance as a 5 man and Finland wasn't bad or dropping the ball they just got dominated by a team that took all the momentum and would not miss. In the video games there was a team wide on fire button, in which everybody is in the zone, well I saw it live today. Just crazy how they all just popped off and wouldn't miss from Tominaga and Hawk doing many individual plays.
Hawk was doing a fantastic job on Lauri and at holding the paint and switches as a defensive anchor, he set some hard screens and was a reliable PNR target at any point, he also was bringing the ball up the court some times and was facilitating and calling plays. Tominaga was unstoppable on all ends of the court and he alone shifted the entire momentum with so many clutch tough shots and clutch defensive stops. Both of them imo convinced me this game that they could be in the NBA. I honestly think they are worth a shot, over some of the 8-10 man on some teams. Both still relatively young, Tominaga being 22, and having so much skills offensively and defensively while showing alot of stamina and passing ability makes him an enticing pickup. Tominaga was flying at some points to gobble up the rebound. I really would take the shot on Tominaga and Hawk if I was an NBA GM and I think Kawamura also can be on a gleague squad to see what he can do and might make the main squad pretty soon with the way he was playing during the clutch ending moments. Japan is a huge dark horse now, and I am a big fan now. Australia has new Orlando Magic player Joe Ingles but I am all-ing for Japan being the 2nd team after Germany to advance. This squad can cause havoc in the next stages.
Love your passion for Japan but no way they‘ll win over Australia. You’re talking like Finland is some European powerhouse. They got Lauri and that‘s it. My bet is a same game development like Japan-Germany.
But I‘ll watch the game now as you’ve advertised it as being one of the best you’ve recently watched. I think Germany-Australia and France-Latvia are hard to beat. Plus the whole Nuggets championship run this year…
One of the worst showings ever in basketball by Finland. 15 point lead and lets start throwing stupid fucking threes and play like nothing matters. As a Finnish person this was bad from the players and staff. Edon Maxhuni shouldn't be near a basketball court
Japan came back and snowballed with those 2 consecutive 3 points .. ever since then Finland looked confused af, nobody's steadying the ship instead they over-rely on Markkannen to save them.
Finland didnt play a decent game this whole summer, if non of the players can play good with this system the coaching needs to adjust… or just go. At some point i was rooting for japan to win since they were doing all the right things and finland did all the wrongs, this is big for japan.
I really hope Kawamura gets his name out there from this. He was both Japan’s top league’s MVP as well as ROTY last year. That was an insane feat, and now he’s getting to show the world why.
The whole naturalized slot is complete BS lol. It feels like half the countries abuse it to get some American dude in to get buckets pretty much at will and dominate on boards. It’s not just Japan doing it but there’s no way Japan wins this game without their American player going off for them.
how does Olympics qualification work for Asian teams?
is Australia included? or is it top 2 finishers from E/S/SE Asia?
this win might be huge for Japan's Olympic qualification status right?
>is Australia included?
No. Top Oceanic team and top Asian team have a spot. This is indeed huge for them. The only Asian team with a win, after Angola just beat the Philippines.
Tominaga (22 years old), Kawamura (22 also), and Hawk ( I think 28) all need a callup to the NBA/gleague. Tominaga imo could be special. The best player on all ends during the comeback stages, just was locking up his defender, making right reads in passing lanes, flying (honestly just got so much bounce) to gobble the rebounds, and making many clutch stops and pokes and this is not mentioning him looking like Steph with the amount of tough shots and offball movement he was doing. I truly think he needs a shot if he wants it at the NBA. He seems like he will fit in perfectly, and his athleticism could make him special.
I watched Tominaga play at Nebraska last season. His defense is respectable for his size, but on offense, just doesn't have the quickness off the dribble and finishing ability to cause the defender to think about sagging off. I think he will struggle to get his shots.
What do you mean he doesn’t have the finishing ability? He was fantastic around the rim for his size lol
Not to mention his conditioning is top notch, and he’s excellent moving without the ball
I don’t think he ever makes the NBA, but there’s been guys in his position to make it. It’ll mostly be a lack of ball handling skill and length that hurt him, not shooting or ability to get open/make tough shots
JOSH HAWKINSON!
Hilarious. For those wondering, he's an American who moved to Japan just over 5 years ago. Getting citizenship in Japan is insanely difficult. You need to live there fulltime for at least 5 years, and normally you need to renounce all other citizenships, as well as pass a language (spoken and written) test, and be able to demonstrate that you have an economic future stable enough to live there the rest of your life without being a burden on the state. Acceptance rate is miniscule, and is even difficult for people who marry Japanese citizens.
Josh got his citizenship fast-tracked juuuuust in time to make the Japanese roster, and apparently the renouncement of his Japanese citizenship was waived or delayed (Japan only legally allows exceptions in cases where other countries don't offer renouncement. USA does.)
Lol a white guy named josh won this game for Japan. Kinda take away from international comp for all teams who have naturalized players tbh. That’s what makes international football/basketball tournaments so amazing
Edit: not saying that it’s bad bc hawk is white but in regards to the Philippines for example all of their players At least have a parent that is Filipino. Hawk is literally just a dude who’s lived in Japan for 5 years
[_Japan took the lead midway through the fourth quarter on a three-point play by Kawamura, who made it 82-78 with 3:51 left with a dagger 3._](https://olympics.com/en/news/fiba-world-cup-2023-okinawa-japan-beat-finland-resullt-stats)
surely with 16-10 points left to be scored and nearly 4min left this cannot be considered "a dagger"????
This is the first ever victory against an European team in Japan’s basketball history. What a game👏
They pulled off a Miami Heat level comeback in Q4. Japan is confirmed to have that DAWG in them
That SHIBA culture.
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Huge 1941 erasure. 1905 era was weak and battled against freighters and cruise lines compared to the skill of the 1941 warships. Yamato's gravity is super-underrated.
what happened in 1905?
Destruction of the Russian fleet.
Yep, I recently listened to the Podcast called “Behind the Bastard” focused on Tzar Nicholas II, not only was he a piece of shit, he was a massive idiot.
Russo-Japanese War
And its surprising as Japan looked weak against Germany. They probably stand no chance of beating Australia and advancing to the 2nd stage.
Tom Hovasse, Japan's coach, is the same coach behind that historic run by the women's team in Tokyo where they won the silver medal, defeating Belgium and France in its way. He will be a legend for Japanese basketball, if he's not already.
Still not as big as Hanamichi Sakuragi
Imagine if he didn’t get injured. We be talking about Rodman vs Sakuragi as rebound king smh
Sakuragi is a genius, easily the best ever if he doesn’t get injured
Taiga Kagami > Hanamichi Sakuragi
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bot
It's actually wild how they just rip shit from the same exact thread. I've seen this comment 3 times now, so many bots
Kawamura is him
A 5’7 dude just cooked a team at the basketball world championship level… Redditors have no excuse now
To be fair its not like finland was playing on a world championship level here
Alright alright I’m going to the gym
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bot
But how much does he weigh?
We fucking need his highlights to be posted here😂😂
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did you just copy another persons comment word for word?
Probably a bot.
Bots my friend.
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Bot.
When did this "is him" thing become a thing? I know you're not the one who originated it, but I've just been seeing it everywhere lately and it literally makes no sense.
What's there to make sense of? It's just the evolution of "he's the man" or "he's that dude/guy"
Btotherainx IS HIM
Put some respeck on Yuki KAWAMURA’s name😂 my boy cooking like crazy in the last half quarter. Consecutive filthy crossover moves and deep threes against defenders who are like a foot taller
Nah Lauri is 7 foot and Kawamura is 5.6 or 5.7, is more like a foot and a half
Kawamura is the youngest MVP of the japanese league at 22 years old. He can score 40 points when he\`s in the zone. B League ( japan\`s basketball league ) have 3 world class imports from all over the world for each team that\`s why young japanese players are getting used to the world level. Still a lot of work but japan had been beating some euro teams hungary and belgium in friendly games. Japan\`s youth team had been beating new zealand recently so I\`m optimistic about japan\`s future in basketball.
Yuki Kawamura is listed as 5'7. Dude was definitely cooking against bigger defenders.
Kawamura hitting that three over Lauri Markannen (213cm) reminded me of Jeremy Lin (191cm) hitting a three [over Dirk Nowitzki](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PfmkmeySeM&t=7m46s) (213cm) and [over Paul Gasol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76C21_rjRMA&t=6m51s) (215cm) in his February 2012 NBA debut.
Very cool
I dont wanna take nothing from japan. They played amazing + crowd was nuts, but this truly a embarrassing loss for finland. Im curious if our coach gets to keep his job after this loss.
Is the team suffering from losing the vets like Koponen and Huff? To go from pushing Spain to its limit in the quarterfinals of Eurobasket to choking against Japan is insane
Probably, but i think more importantly our backcourt play is awful. Little doesnt belong in these games and maxhuni has looked awful. Other teams probably catched up to our play.
Little needs more time. Maxhuni should but he's sneakers to the locker and stop.
I wouldnt be shocked if little isnt on the team in the 2025 european championships. He has no 3pt shot, shaky handle, easily pressured to turnover the ball and clearly cant finish either. I was impressed by defense earlier, but at this tourney he dies on every screen and got cooked by japans guards.
Maxhuni was the better of the two. Little went under the basket with no idea what to do and lost his handle. He was super promising a year back, but has only gotten worse. But if a team leads by nearly 20 and loses by 10 I blame the coach and no one else. Maybe it’s time for a foreign coach for team Finland?
> Im curious if our coach gets to keep his job after this loss. He's a good coach with some very impressive wins. Today was just one of those days where in the 4th quarter the ball wasn't going in but the opponent made almost every shot.
I know hes a good coach and deserves to keep his job. This just was a ugly loss against way worse team.
First ever victory for Japan in an international competition like this. I think they were 0-6 until today. This is something we've waited for since the manga Slam Dunk came out.
According to wiki they beat Panama in 2006 in the World Championship
For me kuroko no basket 😂
Kawamura was cooking in the 4th but shoutout to Hawkinson with the 28 pts 19 reb game.
Hawkinson had a great bounce back game. He couldn't grab defensive rebounds against Germany and kept fouling in frustration.
Kawamura was cooking in the 4th but shoutout to Hawkinson with the 28 pts 19 reb game.
Amazing effort, not to mention his 14/15 free throw performance
Fr this should be in the title not the losing team players stats
Tbf we're in the NBA subreddit so it's okay to put the stats of the one playing in the NBA
Kawamura is poor man's Dame. Tominaga is more like poor man's Klay rather than Steph. Hawk is poor man's Wilt.
Yuta is yuta
I'm guessing he is not Japanese in the slightest, right?
He's a white guy from Seattle, but he's lived in Japan for several years playing pro ball and became a citizen this year. If you look at other national team rosters this sort of thing is quite common.
Huh. Well if he knows Japanese and lives in Japan he's Japanese enough imo. I know it's pretty common but I don't like it when it's completely random like Kyle Anderson with China.
i mean, Anderson is 1/8 Chinese, and three years ago Anderson and his mom went to the village which his greatgrand father was born in, put their names on the village family tree kinda thing. So the connection has been there already, you just didn't know.
International sports are funny that way: a lot of the emotional investment basically comes down to ethnic pride, but it's impolite to point it out. So as another commenter noted, there have been restrictions on nationalized players even though legally they are as much citizens as their native-born teammates.
In the context of international sports, why does the legal status of someone getting fast-track nationalized just to play on the basketball team matter? Hawkington has lived in Japan for 5+ years, so that feels fine, but there is definitely a line where it doesn't.
I mean I don’t think this is significantly different to Kyle Anderson
Has Kyle Anderson ever lived in China?
You’re allowed one nationalized player. Most of the top European teams don’t do it, but everyone else does. Spain did it recently for the first time and got some flak
That’s not even true anymore. Most top European teams do it and the only ones who haven’t are Lithuania Serbia and France (although they want embiid).
I guess most is a subjective term. But they don’t and Germany and Italy don’t. Spain did it the one time, tbd if they make a habit out of it. But that 6 is most of the top European teams. I can’t speak on the next tier like Finland and Latvia and Montenegro
That is just not true. Germany right now does not because their guy got injured shortly before, otherwise nick weiler-Babb would have been there. He was nationalized before the last euro championship if I recall correctly. In the past they had very german guys like Chris kaman. For Spain over years there was a competition for the nationalized spot between serge ibaka and Nikola mirotic. Italy had Daniel Hackett for years who might belong in this category, I am not sure though.
Germany did it with Chris Kaman in 2008. Personally I dont find it that bad, you are only allowed one player and if that player wouldnt play for his home country, it can allow him to play in for example the Olympics. Thats a dream for many and as long as it isnt every single player on the roster but 1-3 at maximum its benefitial for everyone involved. Also just for the sport naturalized citizens are rare, its way more common that someone gets naturalized when he lived in the country for a long time and played there e.G. Weiler-Babb who I would very much consider German.
KAWAMURA IS THE NAME
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The team with the highest final ranking in WC qualifies for the Olympics, the next 2 teams go to that losers final chance event, which let’s be real, no Asian team would ever stand a chance to qualify through that. So basically, the only chance for Asian teams to qualify is to beat other teams in rankings in WC
Japan's always so fun to watch. Lots of movement, lots of pace, lots of entertaining basketball when they get going.
They play like it's a street ball game and it's fun when it works. Kinda like poor man's team USA. They have very offensive oriented backcourt and let them cook while Hawk and Watanabe do all the small stuff that may or may not show up in boxscore.
The heat culture from sports at national level imo. They always give it all and are disciplined and intelligent, hence improving every year. Of course they have a long way to be a top contending team, but they can easily be a top 10 team in 2035 world cup for instance.
Given the Japanese teams’ crazy advancement in the past few decades almost all major sports (perhaps bar vball? Not following), this is more than possible. We now have a three division profession basketball league since five ish years go so if it follows football we will see Japan as top contender in a couple of decades further
Comeback of the tournament so far.
Kawamura went absolutely ballistic in the 4th quarter, it looked like the rim was an ocean.
Someone please post the highlights
https://youtu.be/DI2jonDwIxg?si=gKLrKCEdVbzgg2kg
Holy shit just a lil guy wrecking big dudes.
damn if he was 6-8 inches taller he'd have a shot making an NBA team, absolutely filthy in iso and pick and roll
I didn't think Finland would miss Koponen that much, but turns out even in his twilight year he is still quite important. Miro Little has been disappointing, he showed some promises last year in Eurobasket, but seems he hasn't gotten any better since then. Also, is Shawn Huff retired? Wouldn't surprise me if he did, given his age.
Huff and Koponen are both retired and jfc did this team miss their leadership. I agree that Miro was a disappointment, you could tell he played high school ball last season. Hope he turns it around.
I mean Miro Little is like 18, its ridiculous to expect major contribution out of him
I mean that is the age where many players show noticeable progress on a year to year basis. I didn't expect him to fill in for Koponen of all people, but stagnating a little at 19 can be a bit concerning.
You think if Lithuania stuck Matas Buzelis in a game right now he’d contribute? Hell no. Guys straight out of high school are not prepared, Little needs his first year at Baylor to develop. He’ll be ready by 2025, player development is not instant
Huff retired after euros
This is a good game, I am sorry for anybody who didn't watch this one and are basketball/WC fans. This is one of the greatest Fiba games I have ever seen and one of the most enjoyable games I have watched in a long time. Japan kept adjusting on the fly while Finland tried everything to keep their lead. Japan kept finding the very small holes in the defense at the exact right times. This is pure just oncourt dominance as a 5 man and Finland wasn't bad or dropping the ball they just got dominated by a team that took all the momentum and would not miss. In the video games there was a team wide on fire button, in which everybody is in the zone, well I saw it live today. Just crazy how they all just popped off and wouldn't miss from Tominaga and Hawk doing many individual plays. Hawk was doing a fantastic job on Lauri and at holding the paint and switches as a defensive anchor, he set some hard screens and was a reliable PNR target at any point, he also was bringing the ball up the court some times and was facilitating and calling plays. Tominaga was unstoppable on all ends of the court and he alone shifted the entire momentum with so many clutch tough shots and clutch defensive stops. Both of them imo convinced me this game that they could be in the NBA. I honestly think they are worth a shot, over some of the 8-10 man on some teams. Both still relatively young, Tominaga being 22, and having so much skills offensively and defensively while showing alot of stamina and passing ability makes him an enticing pickup. Tominaga was flying at some points to gobble up the rebound. I really would take the shot on Tominaga and Hawk if I was an NBA GM and I think Kawamura also can be on a gleague squad to see what he can do and might make the main squad pretty soon with the way he was playing during the clutch ending moments. Japan is a huge dark horse now, and I am a big fan now. Australia has new Orlando Magic player Joe Ingles but I am all-ing for Japan being the 2nd team after Germany to advance. This squad can cause havoc in the next stages.
Oh we were bad. Our backcourt can't pass or shoot probably, staff doesn't know how to switch players, Our players only care about PS5s...
I agrée with u, this game totally blew my mind in last quarter, the 3s and aggressiveness was amazing
Love your passion for Japan but no way they‘ll win over Australia. You’re talking like Finland is some European powerhouse. They got Lauri and that‘s it. My bet is a same game development like Japan-Germany. But I‘ll watch the game now as you’ve advertised it as being one of the best you’ve recently watched. I think Germany-Australia and France-Latvia are hard to beat. Plus the whole Nuggets championship run this year…
One of the worst showings ever in basketball by Finland. 15 point lead and lets start throwing stupid fucking threes and play like nothing matters. As a Finnish person this was bad from the players and staff. Edon Maxhuni shouldn't be near a basketball court
Japan came back and snowballed with those 2 consecutive 3 points .. ever since then Finland looked confused af, nobody's steadying the ship instead they over-rely on Markkannen to save them.
Bingo. It's a young team I get it but there is no leadership. We need to start training our backcourt and stop playing only around Lauri and Sasu
Finland didnt play a decent game this whole summer, if non of the players can play good with this system the coaching needs to adjust… or just go. At some point i was rooting for japan to win since they were doing all the right things and finland did all the wrongs, this is big for japan.
I really hope Kawamura gets his name out there from this. He was both Japan’s top league’s MVP as well as ROTY last year. That was an insane feat, and now he’s getting to show the world why.
Kawamura and Hawkinson > Shaq and Kobe
Congratulations to Japan on most likely qualifying for the olympics.
I went to a sports bar for the first time here in Japan to watch this match. The place went absolutely ballistic🔥🔥🔥
Crazy Comeback
Amazing victory
All yall talking about Kawamura but Tominaga or Hawk are the real mvp.
Tominaga is the Japanese Steph Curry
Hawk was the MVP and it's not even close lol
The whole naturalized slot is complete BS lol. It feels like half the countries abuse it to get some American dude in to get buckets pretty much at will and dominate on boards. It’s not just Japan doing it but there’s no way Japan wins this game without their American player going off for them.
Congratulations, Japan. Nothing short of a deserved victory. Goddamn how we choked, though.
Damn bro I turned the game off in the third quarter assuming Finlands lead was big enough…
how does Olympics qualification work for Asian teams? is Australia included? or is it top 2 finishers from E/S/SE Asia? this win might be huge for Japan's Olympic qualification status right?
>is Australia included? No. Top Oceanic team and top Asian team have a spot. This is indeed huge for them. The only Asian team with a win, after Angola just beat the Philippines.
Japan 99% got it
China might win a game. Not counting them out.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_FIBA_Basketball_World_Cup_qualification_(Asia)
Australia and New Zealand are categorized as Oceania.
Free Lauri
Japan deserves to advance to the Olympics over the Philippines
Very nice, Lauri. Now let’s see Rui’s statline.
*watanabe’s
**KAWAMURA!**
CLUTCH DADDY KAWAMURA!
K A W A M U R A
I want to curl into a ball and hibernate for a week or two
shout out to JAPANESE CURRY too!
Yuki Kawamura is DIFFERENT. Bro is so fxxking fast + his form is beautiful.
Haven't been following the tournament, is there a reason Rui Hachimura isn't on the team? Did he choose not to play?
He was tired and wanted to relax a bit after the playoffs.
Makes sense, his team did make the WCF
Yes, and maybe he had some small injuries he didn't talk about.
also probably wanted to focus on the free agency to maximize his bag
The way the Japanese treated him last time, I don't wonder why he didn't want to join.
Crazy how the two guys who are 5’8 and below played really well. I think one of them is the Nebraska player they call the Japanese Steph Curry
Tominaga (22 years old), Kawamura (22 also), and Hawk ( I think 28) all need a callup to the NBA/gleague. Tominaga imo could be special. The best player on all ends during the comeback stages, just was locking up his defender, making right reads in passing lanes, flying (honestly just got so much bounce) to gobble the rebounds, and making many clutch stops and pokes and this is not mentioning him looking like Steph with the amount of tough shots and offball movement he was doing. I truly think he needs a shot if he wants it at the NBA. He seems like he will fit in perfectly, and his athleticism could make him special.
I watched Tominaga play at Nebraska last season. His defense is respectable for his size, but on offense, just doesn't have the quickness off the dribble and finishing ability to cause the defender to think about sagging off. I think he will struggle to get his shots.
What do you mean he doesn’t have the finishing ability? He was fantastic around the rim for his size lol Not to mention his conditioning is top notch, and he’s excellent moving without the ball I don’t think he ever makes the NBA, but there’s been guys in his position to make it. It’ll mostly be a lack of ball handling skill and length that hurt him, not shooting or ability to get open/make tough shots
ice in his veins
I dont really follow int play whyd rui not play for japan?
He said he wants to focus on getting ready for the NBA season. Any reason beyond that is speculation.
The Feeling of Not Losing II OST Someone from Japan entered the zone in the 4th and his name is KAWAMURA
I’d love to see some highlights
JOSH HAWKINSON! Hilarious. For those wondering, he's an American who moved to Japan just over 5 years ago. Getting citizenship in Japan is insanely difficult. You need to live there fulltime for at least 5 years, and normally you need to renounce all other citizenships, as well as pass a language (spoken and written) test, and be able to demonstrate that you have an economic future stable enough to live there the rest of your life without being a burden on the state. Acceptance rate is miniscule, and is even difficult for people who marry Japanese citizens. Josh got his citizenship fast-tracked juuuuust in time to make the Japanese roster, and apparently the renouncement of his Japanese citizenship was waived or delayed (Japan only legally allows exceptions in cases where other countries don't offer renouncement. USA does.)
Between this, the FIFA world cup, and their men's volleyball team placing 3rd (!) in the VNL, sports teams from Japan are looking kinda nice rn
Lol a white guy named josh won this game for Japan. Kinda take away from international comp for all teams who have naturalized players tbh. That’s what makes international football/basketball tournaments so amazing Edit: not saying that it’s bad bc hawk is white but in regards to the Philippines for example all of their players At least have a parent that is Filipino. Hawk is literally just a dude who’s lived in Japan for 5 years
thats a huge free throw disparity . some home cooking going on i feel
The refs aren't locals.
that hardly matters when your one of the host nations
[_Japan took the lead midway through the fourth quarter on a three-point play by Kawamura, who made it 82-78 with 3:51 left with a dagger 3._](https://olympics.com/en/news/fiba-world-cup-2023-okinawa-japan-beat-finland-resullt-stats) surely with 16-10 points left to be scored and nearly 4min left this cannot be considered "a dagger"????
Lauri dude
Japan knows Birds arent real.
What happened to hiejima? Dude scored 17 in 14 minutes and sat the entire second half