Rui Hachimura debut for Lakers crashes Japan’s NBA streaming service as fans miss historic outing
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Japanese fans miss out on Rui Hachimura’s long-awaited Lakers debut when his NBA streaming service BLOCKS during a historic outing against the San Antonio Spurs… making him the first Los Angeles player from the Asian country after the exchange earlier this week.
His fans at home in Japan missed Rui Hachimura’s long-awaited debut for the LA Lakers after the historic moment crashed their NBA streaming service.
Hachimura, 24, became the Lakers’ first Japanese player when he came off the bench against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night, after being traded by the Washington Wizards earlier this week.
It was a seismic occasion for the Asian country, so much so that the overwhelming number of viewers tuning in to watch it sent its streaming service NBA Rakuten into a frenzy.
Fans took to social media in droves to express their frustration at the loss of coverage, before Rakuten released a statement explaining why it happened.
Rui Hachimura’s historic debut with the Lakers was not seen by his fans in Japan.
Hachimura became the Lakers’ first Japanese player on Wednesday night.
A spokesperson for the Japanese company, the official broadcast partner of the NBA in the country since 2017, said the united states sun: “As of 12:20 pm Japan time on Thursday, January 26, the NBA Rakuten site became inaccessible when a sudden increase in user traffic caused a server issue,” said a Rakuten spokesperson to The US Sun.
‘This was around the time the San Antonio Spurs vs. Los Angeles Lakers.
“To meet the needs of our customers, we made the Spurs vs. Lakers was available to view on the official NBA Rakuten YouTube channel and on Rakuten TV until access to the NBA Rakuten site was restored.
“The issue has been resolved and NBA Rakuten is now working as normal.”
While many Japanese fans missed it, Hachimura made an instant impact in his Lakers debut after coming off the bench to put up 12 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes of action.
But fans at home missed out on it after a spike in traffic crashed their streaming service.
Hachimura made an instant impact for LA, scoring 12 points in a win over the San Antonio Spurs.
He also shot 57.1 percent from the field to help his new team earn a 113-104 victory over San Antonio.
Earlier this week, LA traded Kendrick Nunn and a handful of second-round picks to sign the combine forward, who spent three years with the Wizards after being drafted ninth by the team in 2019.
He made history as the first Japanese player to be selected in the first round of an NBA draft, before earning a spot on the All-Rookie Second Team in his debut season.
Hachimura averaged a total of 13 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists while shooting in 177 games for Washington.