Basketball is a game where height beats the opponent, often on the court. However, it seems the fundamentals of the game are not deemed suitable for the Memphis Grizzlies as they keep challenging them. Recently, they signed Armando Bacot, Yuki Kawamura, Miye Oni and Maozinha Pereira. All of these new recruits for the Grizzlies are above 6 feet in stature, but one. Yuki Kawamura is an exception in that department as he might be the shortest NBA player currently! Bacot’s height is about 6’11”, Miye Oni stands at 6’4″, while Maozinha hails 6’8″ on a vertical scale.
Surprisingly, Kawamura’s height is 5 feet 6 inches. But don’t get fooled by his stature. He annihilated the Finnish defence during the FIBA World Cup 2023 while facing All-Star Lauri Markkanen. He put up 25 points and 9 assists performance there for his Japanese crowd. It even impressed NBA veteran Isaiah Thomas, who stands at 5’9″. “He was killing!! I see you killa. Us small guards gotta stick together!!” Thomas posted then sharing clips of Kawamura balling on X. It was an upset victory over Finland, for Japan.
Coming to the recent accolades, the Japanese cleared the qualifiers but couldn’t get past the bigwigs in the pool games. After a blowout loss against Germany, Yuki Kawamura and Akatsuki Japan almost missed an upset over France. Yeah, you heard it right! The Japanese team was about to defeat the Paris Olympics finalists as they lost only by a margin of 4 points. Against such an elite team, Yuki Kawamura racked up 29 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. So, height might not be a big issue for the Japanese guard when it comes to the NBA.
However, Kawamura is not the only short player that the Memphis Grizzlies hold. The shortest NBA player before the 23-year-old was also there at the Grizzlies!
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