Yuki Togashi: Our NBA Dream
Anyone who has played sport competitive must have dreamt of being a professional, playing at the highest level. For basketball, that’s the NBA.
When you’re about 5’9 and can’t jump, that dream will almost certainly stay as one- or does it?
Meet Yuki Togashi.
This diminutive guard from Japan is 5’7, and is on the summer league (pre-season) roster for the Dallas Mavericks, trying to earn a permanent spot in the NBA. H e played high school basketball at Montrose Christian aka alma meter of Kevin Durant, the current MVP, and is a Japanese League (incidentally the BJ League) All-Star MVP.
Watching him on the highlights, it’s difficult not to refashion him as myself: that’s exactly how I would look and play in an NBA game, if I was ever good enough. Unlike the few famously ‘normal height’ players in the NBA, Togashi is not the ultra-athletic type, using his range and speed to outmuscle his opponents. *sorry bad pun*
Will he make it to the NBA? In all honesty, probably not. But he’s already a summer league favourite, and I wish him all the best to make an NBA roster.
