Landing in the purple and gold is the current highlight of his basketball career for Rui Hachimura.
In his exit interview for this season, Hachimura was all appreciative of his experience being a Los Angeles Laker since being acquired by the franchise ahead of the February trade deadline from the Washington Wizards.
“It was a crazy three months for me. I was in one of the best times of my life. It was literally three months ago, four months ago that I am in a different team in the East coast and all of a sudden I’m here in L.A. – one of the biggest team in the NBA and making this crazy run,” he said.
” … It was one of the best moments, and I think I had a good experience,” Hachimura added. “I learned a lot of things from, of course, LeBron, AD, the coaches. … Yeah, it was just, it was great for me. I think it’s gonna be great for my career.”
From being an underutilized forward in the D.C. area, Hachimura found new beginnings in L.A. under coach Darvin Ham. In the playoffs, he emerged as a crucial element of the team’s Conference Finals finish by averaging 12.2 points in 55.7 percent shooting to go with 3.6 boards in 16 total postseason games.
The Japanese star is slated to hit the restricted free agent status this summer.
