Yuta Watanabe

Yuta Watanabe is a Japanese-born professional basketball player who plays in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Toronto Raptors. Born on December 18, 1995 in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Watanabe attended high school at Osaka Toin High School before attending George Washington University in 2017. During his collegiate career with the Colonials, he earned two Atlantic 10 All-Defensive Team honors and was named an A10 All-Academic honoree twice.

Watanabe declared early for the 2018 NBA Draft but went undrafted after playing four seasons at George Washington. In July of 2018 he signed with Ryukyu Golden Kings of Japan’s B League and debuted with them that same season, averaging 12 points per game while shooting 52% from beyond the arc to lead all first year players three point percentage wise. After two successful years in Japan’s top division league he declared his eligibility again for the 2020 NBA Draft where he was selected by Brooklyn Nets as pick 44 overall before being traded to Memphis Grizzlies then onto Toronto Raptors due to their trade agreement back in 2019 when they acquired Marc Gasol from Memphis Grizzlies.

Since coming over to North America Watanabe has seen much success including earning G League Rookie of Year honors during his first season with Raptor 905s which helped propel him into full time roster spot with parent club Toronto Raptors for 2021–22 NBA season which will mark his debut as an official member of an NBA team . He became only second ever Japanese born player to play under bright lights of NBA following Yuta Tabuse who made brief appearances back in 2004 when Phoenix Suns gave him shot at making history . With Tokyo Olympics set next summer it looks like Yuta can make even bigger impact on international stage if given chance as part of national squad representing host country Japan .

Apart from basketball Yuta also enjoys spending time outdoors doing fishing and camping activities when not playing or working out . He is known amongst teammates as very polite individual always eager to help others around him no matter situation or consequence that comes along way , showing strong level dedication every step way towards achieving goals set out at start journey many moons ago .

Overall Yuta Watanabe story thus far has been one filled passion hard work and pure determination something we can all look up too moving forward regardless what challenges come our way no matter how big magnitude might be .