2013 FIBA Asia: Team Hayabusa and Gaijin

(This was first written August 10, 2013)

Having a Japanese-American on the roster of the Japanese national basketball team, nicknamed Team Hayabusa (roughly translated as Peregrine Falcons), isn't new. In the '90s, Japan had one of its most iconic players patrol the shaded lane -- 6'7 Michael Takahashi from California State University-Northridge. 

Kosuka Takeuchi and the Japs fell into hard times
during the 2013 FIBA Asia Tournament.
(image from FIBAAsia.net)

At that time, Takahashi was an anachronism simply because naturalized players, or even players of mixed descent, weren't the norm. It was a sight to behold -- a guy looking every bit an African-American donning the jersey of the Rising Sun. On the court, however, it was his game that really caught everybody's attention. Takahashi was a dynamo. He mostly played the power forward position and, though he was a little undersized compared to the Chinese and Koreans, he could definitely hold his own. He was known as a high-leaper and great finisher around the basket. I can still remember him flushing an alley-oop pass courtesy of Makoto Hasegawa in one match from the 1997 (or was it 1995?) ABC (Asian Basketball Confederation -- the precursor to FIBA Asia) Tournament. 

Takahashi's time, however, is long gone. This time around, players of mixed descent are regulars, and one can find naturalized players on many FIBA Asia lineups. Some clear examples of mixed-race players are the Abbas boys of Jordan (Palestinian-Jordanians), Qatar's "half-Africans," Leonid Bondarovich of Kazakhstan (half-Russian), Lee Seung-Jun (Eric Sandrin) of Korea, Duncan Reid of Hong Kong (half-Canadian), and more than a few players on Gilas Pilipinas (Gabe Norwood and Jimmy Alapag are prime examples). 

Michael Takahashi was one of the most iconic
Japanese players in the '90s.
(image from the JBL)

Even Japan has its own naturalized player in JR Sakuragi (JR Henderson),  and its own half-American -- Sean Hinkley. The typical Japanese slang term for these guys is gaijin, or foreigner. But are they really foreigners? They do, after all, don their country's jersey and play for the flag. Are they really that different?

Perhaps at least in the case of Hinkley, who has been "renamed" Hiroshi Ichioka, the answer is in the negative. That concept of gaijin, in fact, is probably the furthest from his mind, as his team has fallen out of the top eight, which is well below expectations in the 2013 FIBA Asia Men's Championship. 

There was a time -- a long time -- when Japan was considered among the elite Asian hoops teams. From 1960-1997, Japan missed the top 3 in ABC competitions only 5 times. They were mainstays at the top tier of Asian basketball. 

Recently, though, Team Hayabusa has hit a snag. Since 1997, Japan has NEVER finished in the top 4 of any ABC/FIBA Asia Men's Championship tournament. The best they've done is to finish second in the 2010 and 2012 FIBA Asia Cups, which are considered the "lite" versions of the bigger FIBA Asia Men's Championships. 

In the current 2013 FIBA Asia Men's joust, Japan will finish outside of the top eight for the second time in the last three editions of the competition. They finished 10th in the 2009 Tianjin edition. This is, of course, a sad result as they were expected to strongly contend for the top three spots and compete for a ticket to Spain. 

Their chances sank, however, when several veteran players either begged off from joining, or were hampered by injuries. Crack playmaker Takumi Ishizaki chose to stay in Europe to find a team for the new season, while super scorer Takuya Kawamura decided to go stateside and try his luck with an NBA D-League team. Big men Yuya Nagayoshi and Joji Takeuchi were hit with injuries, too. Coach Kimikazu Suzuki was forced to make do with a young team that will improve in the future, but will finish with a relatively poor result in the present.

What follows is my brief interview with Hinkley/Ichioka, who is definitely hard to miss as he is the only "caucasian-looking" player on Team Hayabusa. He shares his thoughts on the Philippines and on his team's performance.

Hoop Nut: How has your stay in Manila been so far? What's the highlight been?

Sean Hinkley: Just getting a feel for a different country. I've never been here before, and I was really looking forward to coming here. All the people have been great. Basketball is so big here, and it's really fun.

Sean Hinkley tries to go up strong against HKG's Duncan Reid
(image from jang.com.pk)

HN: How do you feel about the way you guys have played so far, and what is your mindset heading into the next 2 games?

SH: We just want to make sure to get 2 wins. We've been struggling a lot. We lost a couple of key games, so really want to finish strong. We want to play for our pride.


HN: Can you talk about the future of the Japan NT?

SH: We're still a young team, and we're still learning. We don't have a lot of experience right now, so having more tournaments will help us grow. We need to continue getting used to playing together, and we're just going to try and keep improving.


HN: How about your future? Will you be playing in the new JBA this year?

SH: Yeah. Season starts late September, but I can't say what my team is yet. I'm going into my fourth year in Japan, and I'm looking forward to the season. Personally, I want to improve and get better because I haven't really broke out yet. I am working really hard to get there.