Toews earns raves playing for Japan

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This article was published 11/07/2024 (502 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kai Toews will get plenty of support from members of his extended family in Manitoba but millions more in his native Japan will be cheering his exploits at the Summer Olympics in Paris later this month.

The 25-year-old point guard, the oldest son of former University of Winnipeg standout Burke Toews, was named to the Japanese Olympic basketball team earlier this week.

Japan qualified for Paris as the top team in Asia and a 19th-place finish at the 2023 World Cup and Toews, a dual citizen with a Canadian passport — whose grandparents, Clint and Pearl Toews, still live in Winnipeg — will being doing his part.

Born in Japan to his Canadian dad and his Japanese mom, Eiko, Kai spent two years as a toddler living with his family in the Manitoba capital.

“Originally, my goal was to make the roster for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics because back then Japan basketball wasn’t what it is now,” said Toews from Tokyo earlier this week prior to the national team’s departure for a series of pre-Olympic games against top European competition.

“The only reason we were able to participate in the Olympics was because we were hosting it, right? And so for us Japanese players, it was kind of like our big chance to to make the team and then play in the Olympics, right? Unfortunately, I fell short of that and didn’t make the roster.”

Toews, who played one year of NCAA Division I basketball for the University of North Carolina Wilmington before turning pro as a 19-year-old in his home country, has the credentials to play at the top international level.

In 2023-24, he led Alvark Tokyo to a second-place regular-season finish in the Japan B.League, the country’s top tier of pro basketball.

“I’ve matured more as a player in terms of what I can bring to a team,” said Toews, who averaged 10 points and five assists as a second-team all-star in the B.League. “When I was younger, I was mostly dominant on the ball. I couldn’t really play any other type of way. I had to have the ball in my hands, right?

“But on (the national) team, we have some other really, really talented guards and so my role is to come in and do the dirty work, get into the paint, pressure on defence. When I was younger, I don’t think I could have accepted and executed that role but I think this time around, I’m ready to contribute in any way I can.”

Toews is one of six players on the roster with Division I experience in addition to three NBA players, forwards Rui Hachimura and Yuta Watanabe and guard Keisei Tominaga. Toews said the calibre of play in Japan is much improved in the last five years.

“It’s developed tremendously thanks to a lot of great players that have made their way over to the States — guys like Hachimura and Watanabe and now with our young kid, Tominaga, who played at Nebraska last year,” said Toews. “A lot of lot of talented players coming up and overall as a country, the interest in basketball popularity has increased tremendously.”

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Toews almost had the company of his younger brother, Luka, on the national team. The 19-year-old guard had a tryout with the national team and will attend Boston College this fall.

“A lot of people say we move similar, but I would say that his style is a little bit more skill-oriented,” said Toews. “He’s much more skilled than I am and a much better shooter. I bring different things in terms of size and maybe passing creativity but he’s more of a scoring point guard.”

Kai’s mom will be making the trip to Paris but Burke, who recently coached the Fujitsu Red Wave to a Women’s Japan League championship, will stay at home to guide his club team even though four of his players will suit up for the ninth-ranked Japanese women in Paris.

The Japanese men, meanwhile, will have a difficult time advancing to the quarterfinal round in Paris. They will play No. 3 Germany, No. 9 France and No. 12 Brazil in Group B preliminary round action.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca