From Japan to the NBA: Kawamura Yuki s evolutionary route!

On October 20, 2024, the Grizzlies officially announced that Kawamura Yuki has obtained a two-way contract. He became the fifth Japanese player in the NBA in Japanese basketball history after Yuta Tarota, Yuki Toshiki, Yuta Watanabe Yuta and Shiramura.

After that, he became the first player in Japan to get an NBA two-way contract without having foreign travel experience. This is not only rare in Japan, but also very rare in Asia. In the past, only Wang Zhizhi, Bater, Yao Ming, and Iran's Haddadi were discovered by the NBA during the three Great Wall periods.

But they all have a height of over 210, but Kawamura Yuki is only 172. Not only is he a small person in the world basketball world, he is even considered unsuitable for basketball in Asia. So how did this little man grow to the NBA level? In addition to his personal traits and talents, it is also related to the basketball system in Japan in recent years.

Yuki Kawamura comes from Yanai City, southeast of Yamaguchi Prefecture, coastal the Seto Inland Sea. He has been favored by his parents and two sisters since he was a child. When he was in the second grade of elementary school, he joined the local basketball team. According to Kawamura's memories, he originally loved baseball, but he found that he was more suitable for basketball that needed to keep running, so he turned to basketball. At the beginning of joining the basketball team, he was just practicing basic movements on the sidelines, but relying on his love for basketball, he quickly got a chance to play and was promoted to the starting point guard in the fourth grade. At that time, Kawamura's father installed a basket at home, while Kawamura set a goal of 1,000 shots a day for himself.

In the sixth grade of elementary school, Kawamura helped the team to enter the national competition after 16 years and led the team to win the division championship. Although he achieved good results in elementary school basketball, after entering the new stage, he did not become the number one in Japan as set. His dream is to enter school smoothly like his sisters, then get into college, and eventually become a physical education teacher.

Yohui Kawamura's father, Yoshiichi Kawamura, is an English teacher at Yanai Middle School and also serves as a basketball consultant. After entering middle school, Kawamura chose to join the school where his father taught. In the basketball team, Kawamura is the coach's son, but he is not treated with any preferential treatment. On the contrary, his father's requirements for him were as strict as other team members. Such a harsh environment also allowed Kawamura to make significant progress in his technical and psychological quality than others.

Kamura began to serve as the team captain when he was in the third grade of middle school. He was in a disadvantaged environment that was not a famous basketball school, but Kaamura still set a high goal for the team to be the top 16 in the country. As the captain, he did not use harsh words to suppress the players, but instead understood the players' thoughts in the conversation.

"I know very well that the effects of being forced to play basketball and spontaneously playing basketball are completely different, so I think it is useless to just scold. If someone is distracted by interpersonal relationships, I will take the initiative to help them solve the problem. In order to focus everyone's attention on basketball, I not only choose the right words in training, but also in the time before and after training, and continue to talk to everyone."

Kawamura's efforts finally bear fruit. Yanagi Middle School entered the county competition and the national competition, and finally entered the national competition and entered the qualifiers, completing the final goal of the top 16 in the country.

During this period, Kawamura had not set a goal to play professional basketball in the future, so his studies have not been abandoned, which has created his good communication skills. Because he set goals spontaneously and has been working hard to achieve them, he has established his love for basketball early on, which is also the driving force behind his efforts to improve.

"If I don't like basketball, I may not be able to focus on training. The most important thing is to love this sport."

Compared with technology and talent, Kawamura's mentality at this time is the main reason why he can persist in the subsequent basketball path, and his unique leadership skills have also gradually become prominent.

After entering high school, Kawamura originally wanted to prepare for the university entrance exam according to his original plan to prepare for his future path to becoming a physical education teacher, but an unexpected opportunity completely changed his plan.

After the third grade of middle school, something unexpected happened. On the way home with his father, his father told him:

"Fukuoka No. 1 High School invited you to join their team."

Before Kawamura joined, Fukuoka No. 1 High School was a top basketball school in Japan. It had won the championship many times. When he was invited to join the team in Kawamura, Fukuoka had just won the championship, and Kawamura never thought that he would be invited by such a famous school. But facing a rare opportunity, Kawamura did not immediately agree because he considered his parents' ideas, but when his parents expressed his decision to respect Kawamura, he could make a clear choice.

Kawamura also explained his mood at the time:

"Of course, I really want to challenge myself at a higher level, but I also think it is more realistic to enter a local high school. I have always believed that living a normal life is the greatest reward for my parents, and going to a Fukuoka high school may seem too selfish."

But his parents said that they would respect Kawamura's choice: "Yuanghui's decision is up to him, and we will support his choice."

Choosing to go to Fukuoka No. 1 High School far away from his hometown means that he must choose to focus on basketball. Kawamura knew that this choice would change his life. Therefore, he thought alone for a long time, and even his coach felt that he shouldn't come. But in the end, Kawamura made a decision in December:

"Maybe my parents wanted me to enter the local school, but I finally decided that I wanted to work harder in basketball and to become Japan's number one on the basketball court." After setting this goal, Kawamura began to take the basketball world seriously.

As the number one noble person in Kawamura's basketball career, Coach Inouguchi of Fukuoka No. 1 High School is an important figure who changed his basketball career..

At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the Japanese men's basketball team finally chose the defender, Oki Tanaka, but the final effect was not good, and the Japanese men's basketball team lost all three games. Judging from the Japanese basketball thinking at that time, the national team was extremely needed by the defender who was at a standard height and had both organizational skills.

After Ramas was fired, the Japanese men's basketball team chose to coach Hovas, who led the women's basketball team to win the silver medal, in September 2021. His first approach to office was to bring the women's basketball team's short and flexible defender-led style of play to the men's basketball team. Under his team building concept, offensive small defenders such as Tomoki Yuki, Kishimoto Takaichi, and Fujii Yuma gradually became his core defenders.

However, in the early stages of the team building, Hovas encountered obstacles. At that time, among the Japanese small guard group, only Fu Jianyishu, who had a qualification to travel to the United States, could not adapt to Hovas' coaching style. After Hovas coached the Japanese men's basketball team, the Japanese team scored 1 win and 4 losses, and averaged more than 30 points per game, which also caused many Japanese basketball players to question Hovas' coaching.

When most of the stars in the B League were unable to integrate their coaching philosophy, Hovas had to choose to find new players in the university and naturally found Yuki Kawamura. As mentioned above, Kawamura has excellent assists, series and breakthroughs, and its physical confrontation is not bad.

Horvas was used to the guards as the starting point of the team's offensive during the women's basketball team, so Kawamura's playing style is a perfect match for Hovas' system. In the third phase of the World Cup qualifying round in July 2022, Kawamura was selected for the Japanese men's basketball national team for the first time.

It is no exaggeration to say that without Tom Hovas, there would definitely be Yuki Kawamura.

Hawacun faced a Chinese Taipei in the first game of the national team. At that time, due to the epidemic, the Chinese Taipei sent basically all rookies who had no experience in international competitions, which also reduced the pressure on Hakura's village a lot. Kawamura played for 14 minutes in the whole game, contributing 8 assists and 5 steals, and the Japanese men's basketball team defeated Chinese Taipei for 40 points.

For the national team newcomers, such a debut performance was already quite good, but Hovas was still not satisfied. Because Kawamura did not make any shots in the whole game, but in Hovas' best blueprint, the point guard should remain aggressive in offense and have to attack the basket if he has the chance.

But for Kawamura at that time, facing the national team that was almost all big brothers, he would feel uncomfortable suddenly asking him to take on the offensive responsibility. In the subsequent games, Kawamura still didn't make many shots, with only 2.4 shots in 5 games, averaging only 4.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game, which is far from the other main controller Yuki Toshiki's 6.6 shots. The hesitant move even caused Kawamura to be roared by Hovas on the court many times, and he was once in a downturn because he couldn't find a suitable style of play.

Of course, from Kawamura's growth line, it can be seen that he is not a player who does not know how to change his playing style. Just like a serious and good student, he will definitely find a way to complete the homework assigned by the teacher. After the fourth phase of the World Cup qualifier in August, he began to fully accept the first year of the individual professional league, and since the Yokohama Pirates were a relatively low-age team at that time, Kawamura also had the opportunity to take full control of the team.

After accepting the impact of the national team, he began to adjust his style of play and increase his shooting, so that his teammates also had more opportunities to get open and he also had the opportunity to send more assists.

It is precisely based on these that incredible things began to happen to Kawamura. At the beginning of the 2022-23 season, Kawamura's shooting rate was still unstable, but as the number of shots increased, his score continued to improve. In the game on December 4, 2022, Kawamura scored a new high of 34 points, which is already excellent enough data in the B League, which is relatively slow and only 40 minutes per game, officially announcing Kawamura's evolutionary moment.

In the 2022-23 season, Kawamura ushered in his career year, averaging 19.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game, with a three-point shooting percentage of 34%, leading the Yokohama Pirates to the semi-finals, and also won individual awards such as MVP, Best Rookie, and Assistant King.

After the end of the 2022-23 season, Kawamura began to move towards the biggest goal he mentioned when he joined the professional league, first the World Cup and then move forward to the Olympics.

In the five World Cup games, the most impressive thing is naturally the historical moment when Japan defeated Finland and won its first victory. Kawamura scored 25 points on the spot and gave 9 assists. Especially in the fourth quarter, he made 4 of 4 three-pointers, and in the last few attacks, he was determined to play big against the NBA star-level Markkanen. In the end, Kawamura averaged 13.6 points and 7.6 assists in the World Cup, which is the data that Asian defenders have never played in the world court before.

Also due to the amazing performance of the World Cup, Kawamura's popularity is increasing at home and abroad. Before the 2024 Olympics, Yokohama Pirates officially announced that Kawamura will sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Grizzlies after the Olympics, becoming the second player in the B League to enter the NBA after Matsubashi Yudai.

From this we can see that some fans said that Kawamura was qualified to sign because of his performance in the Olympics against France, which is still unreasonable.

After performing extraordinary performance in the Olympics, Kawamura went to the Grizzlies training camp in September of the same year to participate in the NBA preseason. He played 5 games in the preseason, averaged 15 minutes, scored 3.4 points and 4.2 assists, and signed a two-way contract with the Grizzlies on October 19. Facing the Rockets on October 26, Kawamura made an appearance in the last 3 minutes, with one assist, becoming the fourth Japanese player to stand on the NBA arena, Asahiro Tada, Hachimura and Empire Watanabe.

The dilemma that Kawamura faces in the NBA is a bit similar to what he faced when he first went to college and entered the national team.. Facing a player with better qualifications and abilities than him, it may be due to his personal personality, he often mainly passes the ball first. Of course, due to height, it is quite rare to make breakthrough layups in the World Cup and Olympics. Compared with the weak and obvious offense and defense, Kawamura's assists and passes can still reach the NBA level, which is also the biggest factor in his ability to sign a two-way contract.

The subsequent Kawamura started from the Development League most of the time, and he does not have enough ability to enter the team rotation. And if he wants to go to the next level, it is important to prove himself in a timely manner. On a competitive stage like the NBA in the United States, if you still think about the team all the time like in the Asian League, you will naturally be suppressed by your opponents soon, which is also the problem Kawamura needs to face the most in the NBA.

Looking back at Kawamura's growth process, whether it is entering Fukuoka University, joining the national team, or even moving to the NBA, there are more or less luck elements in it. Of course, the entire Japanese basketball environment and system also happened to help him. What’s more important is that every time he faces failure, he knows how to self-examination and then improves and grows. This is the most valuable thing.