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Washington Wizards select Rui Hachimura with 9th pick in NBA Draft

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With the ninth pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Washington Wizards select Rui Hachimura out of the University of Gonzaga. Rui Hachimura is from Toyama, Japan making him the first Japanese born player selected in the NBA Draft.

After a successful high school career at Meisei high school in Japan, Hachimura would play three years for the Gonzaga Bulldogs. After playing limited minutes in his freshman season, Hachimura would play a more prominent sixth man role in his sophomore season. He averaged 11.4 points per game and 4.7 rebounds per game in 20.7 minutes on a Gonzaga that would go 27-4 in the regular season and win the West Coast Conference tournament on their way to a number one seed in the NCAA tournament.

In the NCAA tournament, Hachimura would have a breakout performance in the round of 32 against Ohio State with 25 points on 9/11 shooting and four blocks.

He would follow up his sophomore season with a decorated junior season averaging 19.7 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game in 30.2 minutes playing a major role in Gonzaga making it to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. He was a finalist for the Wooden Award and the Naismith Award, he was selected to the 1st team Consensus All-American team, the 1st team All-WCC team and the NCAA Tournament All-Region team. He won the WCC Player of the Year award and the Julius Erving award.

Rui Hachimura now enters the next chapter of his journey on a Washington Wizards looking to regroup after a rough 2018-2019 season. The Wizards finished 32-50 losing star point guard John Wall to a torn left achilles in December and is still without a timetable for his return. Here’s hoping Hachimura can be a bright spot for the Wizards as they look to make it back to the NBA playoffs next season.

Welcome to the DC Family Rui Hachimura and good luck going forward!

Spring '19 graduate of Bowie State University with a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism @LilShortCuz on Instagram and Twitter

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