Yuki Kawamura Wins The Jump Ball
Dude is 5’8 in the NBA. Imagine just how bad he cooked every single person in Japan growing up. Probably never had a bad game in his life
Unironically inspiring tbh
shit. I knew I should have tried to go pro.
oh he cooked bro…you gotta to watch some of his b leauge highlights, he even dropped a 40+ point double double
They gotta change the name of that league lol. Makes it sound tier 2
Ya stands for Japanese Basketball League but I thought the same.
how tf does b-league = japanese basketball league lmao
Japanese B-League. The long name is 日本プロバスケットボールリーグ. Which directly translates toJapanese Pro Basketball League. But everyone just says “B Ligu” or B league. Volleyball is V League. Soccer is J League (by all accounts that’s the weird one).
Source: lived half my life in Japan
If B-League is Basketball, then what’s Baseball? I hear that sport is Japan’s most played sport.
It’s NPB, Nippon Professional Baseball. But also Baseball in Japanese is 野球 or Yakyuu. It’s the only sport I can think of immediately that doesn’t use the English pronunciation. But the league still uses it. Japanese is a weird language sometimes.
卓球 immediately comes to mind. Both were played since Meiji, so it’s probably era specific naming conventions rather than meaning given to the sport itself.
Probably something like “basketball league of Japan” getting shortened to b-league
It used to be bj league, so renaming it to b league is an improvement.
is it though
yep
The Australian A-League doesn’t sound any more tier 1 in the great scheme of European and even Asian football
Fun fact: there are only 3 players in basketball history to average 25/5/5 in the Olympics, and one of them is Yuki Kawamura
(Kevin Durant and Luol Deng are the others)
Didn’t luka average more 28.3⁄10.7⁄7.0
Nope, he averaged 23.8⁄9.7⁄9.5.
Luka in 2020 averaged 23.8⁄9.7⁄9.5 over 6 games. Your stats were just the 3 group stage games.
From what I can see Yuki played 3 games in 2024 averaging 20.3⁄3.3⁄7.7. so no idea where the other guy got his stats from.
Saw him play in Yokohama. Electric. Dudes his size couldn’t keep up on D.
He was MVP of Japan’s league. He was cooking everyone.
This dude is insanely quick, gritty and athletic
Imagine being the pride of an entire country.
Shohei ohtani can
Offensively he does a fantastic job. Only reason why he doesnt he a lot of time is his defense
I’m a casual NBA viewer so I’m not familiar with Yuki Kawabata. I thought maybe you meant relative to the other players, it’s as if he’s 5’8, but not actually.
I just checked his Wikipedia and he’s listed as 5’7. This guy is truly inspirational!
He cooked my Finland in the World Championships and even shot a three right in Markkanen’s face. Couldn’t believe it tbh
Listed height is 5’8 against Kasparas Jakucionis’ 6’5
Yuki could play quarterback for Vanderbilt.
I just watched this 19 times and I don’t understand what happened. I think KP jumped too soon and then misse the ball on the way down?
I mean this is why jump balls exist, you can lose with a pretty huge reach advantage lol. Even the best huge centers win only ~75% of the time
Yea the heat player just whiffed the ball
Tall dude probably thought he had advantage anyway so either didn’t try as hard as he needed to and/or mistimed the jump. But that’s usually what happens.
Looks like KP had his back to the ball and the ref was about a foot behind him( naturally harder to jump backwards) and just threw it straight up, Yuki was facing the ball and was able to step into his jump. Plus a lil mistiming on the swipe and we get a beautiful moment
Where is Yuki listed as 5’8?
Everywhere I see (ESPN, BREF, nba.com, Wikipedia) lists him at 5’7.
Come on man. Give him that inch.
If you give him an inch they’ll take a mile and we can’t have a 5,280 foot tall Yuki around.
5,285’ 7”
Bro gave him a mile but not the inch
Well it was about that time I noticed that Yuki was about 5280 foot tall and was a crustacean from the paleozoic era.
Hmm ur right he seems to have lost an inch since he got drafted. All the media from then said he was 5 8 and thats what google uses. But this season its 5’7
Well, Kasp can’t jump over a phone book so…
Jokic can’t jump over a small notebook and I watch him win tips against similar height players
Physically 5’8”, mentally 8’5”
25 is gonna get clowned in film review
Don’t have to wait for film review
He’s a rookie from Lithuania, Jakučionis. Not a bad player, since he gets playing time in NBA, but yikes.
Tokyo Lift
Underrated comment
why do people say underrated comment to a comment that was less than an hour old… like maybe wait a bit to see.
Underrated Comment
Yuki Vert!
Take my upvote, love it
Look at Yuki man, so inspirational.
You love to see it.
bro lost jump ball to a 5’8 guy… lmao..
Who was essentially squatting at the lowest point lol
Tbf he’s squatting to maximize his momentum, you can get a better vert pushing out of a squat than standing upright
This guy watches ESPN Sports Science. I knew there were others.
Not to humble brag but I actually learned it from having the physical ability to jump in real life
lmao I was going to say, doesn’t everyone figure this out around the same time they learn to run.
You have to bend your knees to jump? Damn, ESPN is bringing some cutting edge science
no way can you link me to the video where they tell you to step with one foot at a time when you run. love that one
No short king slander tonight. Dude just represented all of us except I also have -58 basketball skill
I love how much the commentator believed in him, and how excited he got.
Had to rewatch with sound on after this comment 🔥
Just did the same. 😂 good time.
Adam Amin is the commentator and he’s 1 inch shorter
I love when 6′ 11″ Stacey King stands next to him
That’s awesome
Among the many downsides of the Bulls being irrelevant is that people forget they have one of the funnest booths in the league.
Bro I promise you that Bulls would have a better record if they consistent played Yuki more. Dude got more hustle than these bums.
100 percent. Dude plays every game like it’s game 7 of nba finals
Dude plays every game likes he’s Dellavedova
Scrappy. Dawg.
Gym rat. High BBIQ.
Hey our guy Pat Spencer is good in this convo too.
Then again, we still remember Delly very well…
So but Yuki isnt dirty.
We couldn’t tho.The intention was to keep him on a 2-way, but he got hurt and we had to release him. When he healed up, we re-signed him again and this is his first game since then. We’re also kinda deep at the guard position, so he’s still behind like 6 other guys lol.
But I’m a Yuki truther. He’s pure hustle and has insane speed and court vision. I mean he’s 5’8” and he may have been the 2nd fastest player tonight behind Ayo.
He’s like IT. The problem is that any injury could derail his quickness and then he’s out of the league.
I havent been keeping up
he was on the team and then got hurt in preseason and then they cut him and then did he heal and they didn’t want him or they waited till he was clear and then signed him again
They waited until clear.
Which I think a wasted opportunity for other team to snatch him up. He’s scrappy player with good vision, and he’s cheap.
Waited until clear. Word is he still used the team facilities for individual workouts and weight training to stay in shape while he healed and while technically not part of the team.
bummed when we cut him at the end of the summer. this is how I learned he was back on the team.
The problem is we just have a million guards
He honestly has solid game.
Good floor vision, can get hot shooting, smart, good handles, genuinely great playmaking.
Size really is the main thing holding him back. If he was like 6’3 he’d have a decent backup PG career lowkey
We need less Bronny and more Yuki.
I want to see Bronny and Yuki 1v1 in a Lakers Bulls games. I wonder who’d win 🤔
I legitimately don’t think Bronny is skilled enough to take Yuki 1v1. Yuki is a liability on an NBA floor because of his size but Bronny is not that big himself while also being a liability due to his skill. Yuki dropped 30 on wemby in the Olympics a while back.
Also had a legendary game against FIN in FIBA Cup 2023. His acceleration after this cross is so insane.
Hol up I’m gonna call Sam Presti, we have 1 week to go and been missing so much playmaking/ secondary scoring
For somebody that a lot of you guys seem to dislike, you can’t seem to keep his name out of your mouth.
Bronny is a much better player than Yuki is?
Lmao wut
White redditors got a weird attraction to yuki cus he’s 5’8, “cute” and Japanese almost like the keanu reaves stereotype amongst redditors. The guy is purely in the NBA for the Japan market, no other reason
The hell are you talking about Keanu Reeves? Even if what you say is true, he’s definitely better than Bronny.
Counter point: Bronny James is fucking trash.
Bronny was a much better prospect than Yuki
Dragan Bender was also a much better prospect than Nikola Jokic so? Yuki is in the league for 2-3 seasons now I think and reached it organically while Bronny got drafted by his dad and showed barely any sign of being playable.
Dragan Bender
Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time.
A long time…
Bronny is a good kid but he’s not touching the NBA if he didn’t have LeDNA in his blood
Yuki isn’t in the NBA if he wasn’t Japanese. There’s a market they want to reach to
Lol The reason he got to nba because of his Olympic plays
Horrendous take
Lol Adam and Stacy going crazy
look at his eyes how badly he wanted the ball, I am always going to root for player like Yuki. Hope he can get a guarantee soon.
LOL, let’s goooo
Yukiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!
This is historical.
Ain’t no way this actually happened to us
He deserves a guaranteed contract from Chi for that
looking like the Little Giant out there wtf
Shoyo Kawamura out here
Bulls legend already
Why did nobody tell me Yuki was playing real minutes? I just missed must watch TV smh
Put this man’s heart, spirit and effort into Ben Simmon’s body and he would be MVP easily.
What do you mean by putting his body in Ben’s body? 🤔
My bad - edited 😂
what is the name of the announcer saying “just wait, just wait”
world needs to know the name of a believer
It’s Adam Amin
Heart over height!
White men can’t jump
Put the jersey in the rafters
Losing jump ball to 5’8 Yuki 😎😎😎
All of Lithuania in shambles we don’t claim that man in this moment. That being said we are desperate for an NBA level PG
dude how LOL 😂
Love to see it
What a DAWG.
he’s back in the nba? wow. so Nemby no longer the smallest active player
Short king 👑
I thought the bulls cut him. Glad to see him again in the nba
Yuki used fighting spirit to win the jump.
His teammates are never gonna let him forget that…ever
I’m going to assume this was specifically trained for.
You put a bunch of weights on and you jump all day every day
I’m not saying that at the least that this is not impressive in any way
In fact, quite the opposite amount of training, one would have to go through to overcome that obstacle and height disparity is an iron feat
I’ve won a jump ball against a 6’7” guy as a 5’10” guy. Anything is possible fellas
i’m a fairweather bulls fan because i grew up in the burbs. keep very loosely in touch with basketball and saw some yuki highlights last year. my jaw dropped seeing him in a bulls jersey. i’m back baby
If you watch the ref in the lower right, he double shuffled and ran back on defense lolol he wasn’t expecting that one
Bro should retire
lol, after he dribbled it out, legit looked down to make sure I was in the NBA sub
Y That’s hilarious
That other guy should be exiled from the league, that was actually embarrassing as fuck
A cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal
Yuki is playing?
Most skilled era
I could win that
This only happens because refs are absolute shit at fair jump balls.
Give me a drone with a visual and aural countdown 15 feet above the court.
25 going to the Giannis trade package 😭
Heat bench dieng inside.
Hot take: Mavs letting Luka go was wild… but the real crime was Memphis letting Yuki Kawamura go
Haha I just noticed how the ref shells up, wonder if that happens regularly
I’m actually surprised he’s on the court this late into a close game. It’s his first game of the season lol
Winning a jump ball with that size difference is wild timing and hustle height
What being dropped by RB does to a man.
white on honorary.white cri….. oh wait
Spud Webb was 5 ft 6 back then but listed at 5 ft 7. The next spud Webb maybe?
Nate Robinson looks different
Heart over Height
KJ is not going to hear the end of that. Rui didn’t even steal it on the way up, though the toss by the ref was kinda trash.
Rui? Are you somehow confusing the only two Japanese players? One is a foot taller and literally black lmao.
Ya’ll serious? Ref saw Yuki, and he knew his job. Ref tossed the ball directly over Yuki’s front-foot. Yuki’s jump path is 100% vertical. You can pause and watch in slow-motion. NBA rigged asl, and ya’ll eating it up.
You need a hobby.