This story appears in SLAM Issue 242. Published on February 21, 2023 at slamonline.com.
On November 3rd, 2004, an eight-year-old Yuta Watanabe sat inside his home in Miki, Kagawa Japan with his eyes glued to the television. With 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter of the Phoneix Suns vs. Atlanta Hawks matchup, he began screaming as Yuta Tabuse – the first Japanese-born player to play in the regular season – tied his drawstrings and took the court.
“At that time my dream was already to make the NBA, so I was saying, hey that’s a Japanese guy playing in the NBA, I feel like I can do that too. I gotta go to work,” Watanabe tells SLAM.
Once time expired he picked up his basketball and went straight to work. He hasn’t looked back since.
It’s been no secret that “Yutamania” has struck the Brooklyn Nets at their core this season. As of press time, the 6’8 forward is leading the League in three-point percentage, a scintillating 50.6 percent to be exact. From “Big Shot-anabe” to “Got-anabe” to “Yuta the Shootah”—Ian Eagle’s been having a whole lot of fun this year—Watanabe always seems to be in the right spot at the right time.
Sprinting to the deep corner on each possession and crashing the glass as the shot clock dwindles, the former G-League product has been a driving catalyst for the Net’s climb back toward the top of the East with his marksmanship and adhesive defensive presence. (READ THE FULL STORY HERE.)