Rui Machida is a point guard representing Japan's women's basketball scene as a player in the Women's Basketball Japan League, or W-League. Despite her glittering career, including her performance at the Tokyo Olympics and her time playing for the Washington Mystics in the U.S., a desire to lift up her teammates shines through her words. Why is she so humble?

There are moments in a basketball match when it feels as though the team is a single living organism. The beauty of seamless teamwork is different from flashy individual plays. The fast-paced action of basketball outpaces other team sports, and it may be in those moments that we fall more in love with basketball.

Machida appreciates basketball as a team sport more than anyone else. She always puts teammates first and embodies the spirit of “One for All.” It’s something that resonates with everyday people navigating diverse personalities at work or school, perhaps because it’s so easily neglected in the busyness of daily life.

“I’ve never thought of myself as the center of the team. As a point guard, I do think of myself as someone who drives the team forward, but I feel like that’s so I can bring out the best in the other players. That’s my job, and most of all, it’s what I love to do. Fujitsu Red Wave is a perfectly balanced team where everyone can shoot three-pointers, and maybe that’s why I feel that way even more. Aggressive defense leads to fast breaks, where no matter who gets the ball, anyone can convert it into a score. The strength of our team is that we don’t have to rely on any single person, and I feel that this team is a perfect fit for me.”

When there is no need to rely on just one player, it means that everyone can trust each other. It seems obvious, but it’s not so simple. Machida also shared her ideas of ideal communication with teammates.

“I think it’s important to have one-on-one conversations with my teammates. Sometimes I need to speak in front of the whole team, but I feel like when that happens everyone has to say ‘yes’ to whatever I say. And then I won’t ever know what my teammates are thinking. Of course I think it’s important to let my teammates know what I’m thinking, but more than that, I want to know what everyone else is thinking.”

August 6, 2021 was a historic day for Machida, when she orchestrated Japan’s victory over France in the Tokyo Olympics women’s basketball semifinals. That day Machida made an Olympic record of 18 assists in a single game, and was praised as a superstar by media from the U.S., the global Mecca of the sport. We tend to remember historic achievements by their results alone, but behind them there must surely have been a very long, carefully cultivated time that is not easy to measure. I tried posing one final question. Why did she choose basketball from among all team sports?

“”In the beginning I was actually into baseball, and I didn’t doubt that I’d be playing baseball forever. But when I was in second grade a friend invited me to come watch a basketball practice, and I fell completely in love with it. While everyone else practiced their shooting, I got hooked on dribbling and passing. I’ve always loved team sports. You can’t do it alone. You can’t win just because one person scores. Different players are constantly moving, everyone links up to score a point, everyone defends together. Soccer might be similar in that way. But for me, basketball was the sport where I could ‘feel’ teamwork more than any other sport, which is what I love most of all.”

TEXT: Yohsuke Watanabe (IN FOCUS)
PHOTO: Yoko Tagawa