Actor Riku Hagiwara will appear as a special guest on "Live Broadcast! NBA Rising Stars 2025," which will be broadcast and streamed for free on WOWOW on February 15th. Prior to the program, WOWOW interviewed Hagiwara, and the contents of the interview were released on February 14th. Hagiwara, a big fan of the Golden State Warriors, spoke passionately about the success of Japanese players such as Yuki Kawamura, and the highlights of the NBA All-Star Game.
"NBA Rising Stars 2025" is one of the events of "NBA All-Star 2025" to be held from February 15th to 17th, and is a game for players who will lead the NBA in the future. It will be broadcast live by WOWOW, and will be broadcast and streamed for free on WOWOW Live and WOWOW On Demand from 10:50 am on the 15th.
Hagiwara also appeared on the WOWOW NBA event "Riku Hagiwara's First Appearance! NBA All-Star Game Pre-Special" (archived on WOWOW's official YouTube channel) on the 11th. The interview was conducted after the event.
-What did you think of the event?
It was fun. I think the NBA is becoming more popular in Japan every year, but there are still many people who don't know about it, so even if I talk about the NBA and say, "This is what it is," it doesn't always get through to them. But today, I was surrounded by people who love the NBA, and seeing so many people nodding in agreement with what I said made me feel like it was a really good environment, and I was really happy and enjoyed it.
--Are there not many NBA fans around you usually?
Of course, I have friends who I watch movies with, but I always end up talking to the same people, so I hope there will be more opportunities to share with lots of people like that and enjoy the same thing.
-When you heard about the Luka Doncic trade, you contacted Chris Sasaki.
As expected, I was a little too busy to handle that trade on my own...With other trades, even if I don't understand everything, I can somehow imagine from the background, "It's because he's this kind of year" or "I guess it's something like this," but with that trade, no matter how hard I tried, it was just impossible, and I was in a situation where I was saying, "Please, Chris" (laughs).
Q: It was a busy trade deadline this year. Were there any trades that caught your eye?
De'Aaron Fox (formerly of the Sacramento Kings) moving to the Spurs was just too strong for Luka, so everyone just kind of felt like he was traded, but if you think about it, it was a pretty big trade. A scorer, a guard who can cut in and shoot from the outside, and a very high creative ability, playing with Wenby (Victor Wenbanyama/San Antonio Spurs). When he became teammates with Chris Paul (San Antonio Spurs), Wenby's grade seemed to have gone up a notch, but (with this trade) I think he will finally become unstoppable. Considering that there are still about 30 games left, the Spurs have become a team that will be involved in the playoffs.
--You're competing with your favorite team, the Warriors.
That's right! The Warriors have been on the very edge of making it to the play-in tournament, but recently, thanks to Portland (Trail Blazers) being so strong, it feels like the teams up to about 13th place are competing for the playoffs, which is a bit of a problem (laughs). I get the impression that there have been a lot of trades that have made the West (Western Conference) more active.
Personally, the fact that (Andrew) Wiggins moved to the (Miami) Heat in the Jimmy (Butler/Golden State Warriors) trade clashes with my joy at acquiring Jimmy. Wiggins was an ace stopper in the playoffs during the season we won, and he was a player I personally had a lot of attachment to. This trade season really made me realize how difficult it is to stay on a team forever, and how unpredictable the NBA really is.
Q: The Warriors have played two games since Butler joined the team (as of February 11th). What do you think?
He is called "Playoff Jimmy" so of course I knew about him and I have had the opportunity to watch his games, but these two games left me with the impression that he is a star player with better ball control than I had imagined. The impression of Playoff Jimmy was so strong that I thought he was a player who was all "I'll do it", but if a pass is the right answer depending on the situation, he will do it, and if you think about it, the feeling of jumping on rebounds and loose balls with all his might is something that the Warriors have been lacking recently and the team has not been able to get through. If the big veteran plays like that and the whole team can wear Jimmy's spirit, I think we can aim a little higher from here. It was only two games, but expectations for Jimmy are already rising.
--I got the impression that you're a pretty serious NBA fan (laughs).
Well, I am quite a Warriors fan (laughs).
--You said that your favorite player is Stephen Curry, but what other players are your favorites?
I've seen Klay (Thompson/Dallas Mavericks) and Draymond (Green/Golden State Warriors) in the same way, so that's inseparable. If I were to pick a player outside of the Warriors, it would be Kawhi (Leonard/Los Angeles Clippers). As a Warrior, he was beaten to a pulp, so it's hard to say, but the sight of him playing like a cyborg, without missing an infinite number of shots, on the stage of the NBA Finals is still a fond memory to me. However, when I look at him as a player, he is good on both offense and defense and has a strong competitive spirit. I think he has become an unforgettable player in many ways. He then moved to the Clippers, and although he was injured, I watched his return game the other day. I realized that I really like having a strong Kawhi in the league.
-You mentioned this when talking about Wiggins, but when it comes to your favorite players, you place a lot of importance on defense.
That's right. As an amateur, I think that no matter how strong a player is on offense, there are ups and downs, so defense doesn't have much of that. If you play perfect defense and still score, you have no choice but to praise your opponent. At the moment that decides the game, we tend to focus on the offense, but I think that good defense is what brings you closer to victory. That's why I find players who are strong on both offense and defense very attractive.
--Just talking to you now and what you said at the event, it seems like you keep up with NBA news quite a bit.
I follow it. I have friends who follow it the same way, so we always exchange information and I like that kind of information. Actually, I like looking at numbers quite a bit. There are a lot of different records, aren't there? I like looking at niche numbers like the number of times someone made 8 or more 3-pointers in one game. If you look at (Nikola) Jokic (Denver Nuggets) this season, he's putting up really unbelievable numbers. I think it's unfair that he can do so many things and still be the best in the league in 3-pointers (laughs).
--The first NBA game you watched properly was the 2012 All-Star Game, but the NBA has changed a lot since then.
At that time, there were still many star players who sold their physicality, and the impression of the three-pointer was "Let's shoot if you can shoot". From there, I watched the rise of Steph and the Houston Rockets, and the era changed to one where "everyone can shoot". Centers like Gori in "Slam Dunk" are gradually disappearing, and every player has the ability of Mitsui, and that is the biggest change I've felt in the last 10 years.
--In the midst of all that, you were drawn to Curry and the Warriors.
I first learned about Curry because when you start to get interested in the NBA, videos start to circulate. At that time, I happened to see a video of him scoring 54 points against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. I was a point guard at the time, so I was hooked right away. The NBA is something you admire, but you can't imitate at all. No matter how hard you try, you can't imitate LeBron (James/Los Angeles Lakers), and you can't dunk. Everyone tries to imitate Kobe (Bryant/former Los Angeles Lakers), but they can't do it.
However, Curry was the only one who gave me the expectation that "Maybe if I practice a lot, I can become like that." From there, I fell in love with Steph Curry and fell in love with the Warriors. Until then, I mostly watched All-Star games and highlights of star players. After watching stars such as KD (Kevin Durant/Phoenix Suns), LeBron, Kobe, and (Dwyane) Wade (former Miami Heat), it was Curry who finally made me support the team.
--Since then, the Warriors have won four championships, but which one is your most memorable?
2022 is the best after all. No one expected it. Even as a supporter, I of course wanted them to win, but even when I got to the NBA Finals, I thought, "It's a bit tough against the Celtics." The process of getting to the NBA Finals, even in the playoffs when KD was there, was the norm of "We won't lose until the conference finals." I didn't think we would lose, and I thought that no matter what team came, we wouldn't lose with this lineup, but in 2022 we were clearly fighting on the challenger side. I think the fact that Curry was crying says it all. The first three championships had so much talent and they were able to score a lot of points, but in 2022, the power of players like Otto Porter Jr. (former Golden State Warriors) and Nemanja Bjelica (former Golden State Warriors) was really amazing. I felt that the weight of the points they scored was amazing.
--You've recently been to San Francisco, the home base of your favorite team.
I went there in January. I had been there before for a TV program, so this was my second time. The second time, I went there just because I wanted to watch the Warriors game privately. The first time, I watched the Pacers game behind the goal. Usually, when you watch on a screen, you see it from the side of the court, and then from above, so you can easily say, "That place was empty," but when you see it behind the goal, it was really impressive. What really shocked me was (Tyrese) Haliburton (Indiana Pacers). When I felt for myself that "Haliburton is doing that movement on a flat surface!", my perspective suddenly changed. Anyway, it was so shocking that I tried to watch it from the same place the second time.
--This year, the All-Star game will be held in San Francisco, so what are you looking forward to?
Every year, the All-Star Game focuses on the star players of the host city, but we will probably never see Steph playing in the San Francisco All-Star Game again. In that sense, I think it will be a memorable All-Star game, so I want Steph to stand out, or do something symbolic that makes people think, "Wow, it's Steph Curry!" Also, the team divisions are really interesting. The teams are so neatly categorized that it seems like they were decided in advance, and as someone who started watching the NBA in the 2010s, I want Team Shaq, which has many veterans, to do their best. I want them to show the power of veterans who still won't give in.
Q: What do you think about the Rising Stars who will be participating as special guests in the WOWOW broadcast? When I listened to them talk at the event, I got the impression that they have a strong sense of loyalty to the Warriors.
As expected, it is my favorite team, so I chose Trayce Jackson-Davis, Brandin Podziemski, and Pat Spencer (all three from the Golden State Warriors) as players to watch. I think there are many players who are more energetic than the players in the All-Star game and are eager to make their name known. I am really looking forward to seeing players who will rise to the All-Star game from here and create the next era.
Thinking back, I myself got into the NBA all at once during the All-Star game. I think watching the NBA with people who have never seen it before is a great way to get into it. Whether it's the All-Star game or the Rising Stars, people who don't know anything about it probably won't know who is who, so the Rising Stars are a chance to draw in the players who are more motivated and want to make a name for themselves.
Speaking of names, Japanese players Yuki Kawamura and Hiroki Tominaga will also be participating in the "G League Up Next Game 2025" on February 17th. How do you feel about their performance?
When I started watching the NBA, there were no Japanese players, so I couldn't imagine that there would be a Japanese player in the league at the time. Then Rui Hachimura (Los Angeles Lakers) and Yuta Watanabe (Chiba Jets Funabashi) started to play there. I'm happy to see Kawamura and Tominaga now fighting on the NBA field. Thanks to the success of Rui and Yuta, I don't feel uncomfortable about Japanese players being at that level anymore.
In the midst of all this, when I see Kawamura playing for the Grizzlies, I want to see more. If one day the Warriors were to be pushed back by Kawamura of the Grizzlies, I would be extremely frustrated, but at the same time, I would also want to see such a game. It's clear that since Kawamura joined the team, more people around me have been talking about the NBA. Seeing people who had never watched the NBA before suddenly become interested, I realized how important it is for Japanese players to be successful. As a fan, I really hope that he will continue to do well and become the spark that will spread the NBA even more in Japan.
