As 19-year-old phenom Yuki Kawamura grew up, one of the NBA players he would frequently watch was Isiah Thomas.
Read carefully — that’s former Detroit Pistons player Isiah Thomas, not the Isaiah Thomas known best for his two All-Star Game appearances in 2016 and 2017 while with the Boston Celtics.
Kawamura’s father raised him on a steady diet of NBA videos from before he was born, and he gravitated toward Thomas, one of the Pistons’ “Bad Boys” who regularly served as foils for the eventual six-time NBA champion Chicago Bulls.