WANNA BALL
RUI HACHIMURA KNEW it was coming because it always happened. For two weeks, his life was straight out of Groundhog Day. A 13-year-old junior high student at the time, Hachimura would walk into class, sit in his seat and just wait for that inevitable daily plea.
“You should join our basketball team,” his friend would say.
Hachimura did not have any interest. Basketball was too hard, he’d say, and like many other boys growing up in Japan, he had dreams of excelling on the baseball diamond. But after two weeks of the daily request, his priorities changed. He didn’t care about which sport he wanted to play. Hachimura just wanted his friend to
