As reported by Zach Rosen at NBA.com almost two weeks ago (and at BulletsForever we admittedly didn’t publish something right away) and later by Josh Martin at Closeup360.com, Rui Hachimura and a large contingent of Washington Wizards’ front office, including General Manager Tommy Sheppard, made a first official visit to the Japanese Embassy in D.C., at the formal invitation of Ambassador Shinsuke J. Sugiyama.
During the visit, Ambassador Sugiyama offered the rookie and the rest of the Wizards’ brass a carte blanche to the Japanese quarters in D.C.:
“One thing that I can assure you is that this humble place is yours,” Ambassador Sugiyama said to Hachimura. “At any time, you and everybody have a free ticket to come over and dine with us.”
With such a royal welcome Rui must feel much at home in D.C., and hopefully will thrive here this season. You can watch the official video release above.
The Wizards have certainly made many moves to increase their appeal to NBA fans in Japan. What activities can be done to promote Japanese culture in the D.C. area? And how deep can the Wizards’ outreach with Japan be with Hachimura on the team?
And can the team’s outreach be applied to other countries, like Latvia where Davis Bertans is from? Let us know in the comments below.