MQ is known as the official superfan of the Washington Wizards, who faced off against the Golden State Warriors at the 2022 NBA Japan Games. After sharing her passion for the NBA through fan art on social media, she earned the Wizards’ seal of approval and got to meet her favorite players in person, just like a real-life Cinderella story. She told us about the great joy her fandom activities have brought her.

“I fell in love with the NBA when I was a college student in 2015. It started when a senior at my university showed me an NBA highlight reel and I became captivated by a player named John Wall, and I started following the Washington Wizards.

As I watched games and checked the various social media accounts of players and the team, I discovered a new favorite player named Bradley Beal, who formed a duo with Wall. In 2018, I created a dedicated social media account for the NBA and started creating illustrations of the moments in the games that moved me and posting them online. I’d spent my middle and high school years thinking only about basketball, and when I started university I was only thinking about art, and I was never particularly interested in anything else. But after meeting new people at university, I found myself wanting to find something else I could throw myself into, and the NBA was perfect for that.

When I decided that I was going to go all-in on supporting the Wizards, the team was described as having the potential to compete for the top spots in the East, but they couldn’t deliver the expected results with either Wall or Beal sidelined by injury, and it required some patience to keep rooting for them. But I believed that when both Wall and Beal were playing the Wizards would definitely be a strong team, and all that time I spent cheering them on made me become attached to the whole team, and I just couldn’t leave! It might be a similar feeling to cheering for an indie band or a newly debuted idol group.

So when Wall was traded to the Houston Rockets in 2020, I was so shocked I just cried my eyes out. I had been so looking forward to finally seeing Wall and Beal play together, with Wall set to return from his season-long injury absence, and on top of that I was really looking forward to Rui Hachimura joining them. Even now, I can’t help but wish “if only things had gone differently in a parallel world”―it was that disappointing. But it also became a good turning point for me to realize that I still wanted to keep supporting the Wizards even after Wall’s departure. My stance now is that as long as the Wizards’ players are healthy and playing basketball, I’m happy regardless of whether they win or lose, although of course seeing the players happy when they win is the best.

Let me also talk about my beloved Beal. Beal was expected to be the face of the franchise from the moment he arrived. Despite being injury-prone, he developed rapidly and stepped up as the team’s primary leader while Wall was out for the season. His playing style has recently changed slightly to adapt to the team welcoming new members, but he continues to pull the team forward, and I can’t help but cheer for him. He’s been keeping an eye out for my illustrations too, and when he said things like “Now this is art,” and “She really knows how to draw me,” I became an even bigger fan.

Last year’s NBA Japan Games at Saitama Super Arena is definitely a highlight of my fandom. It was an incredible event where the Wizards, including Hachimura, played against the Golden State Warriors who are one of the most popular teams on the NBA for an exhibition match. I provided illustrations for merchandise and digital content, and my illustrations were also displayed in the hotel where the Wizards were playing. From the time leading up to the event when I was preparing all the way through to the big day, I felt like I was constantly updating the best moment of my life.

Thanks to the thoughtful consideration of the Wizards staff, I was able to meet the players as they returned from practice to the hotel. I was so overwhelmed when I got to meet Beal in person I couldn’t stop crying, and I cried again after arriving at the court. Over the course of the three days of the event, I was moved to tears at just about everything!

I feel that the public has lost interest after Hachimura transferred to the Los Angleles Lakers, but I’m still a Wizards fan. I’ve decided to love whoever joins the Wizards and cheer for them throughout the entire season no matter what happens, and it’s a lot of fun to have gotten to know so many Wizards fans through my activities as MQ and to be able to cheer together with them. Like I said earlier, seeing the players grow and make great plays is all I really need. I’m definitely looking forward to the Wizards’ next season.

I played basketball for three years at Yakumo Academy, then after taking a gap year to study for university entrance, I went on to Tokyo University of the Arts. A lot of people tell me they are impressed about my trajectory going from a high school aiming for national high school sports championship to a highly competitive art university, but I’ve always felt insecure because there are many people better than me at both basketball and art, and I could never compare to the top-level professionals in either field. That’s when I entered the world of the NBA, and by cheering on players who continue to work tirelessly to grasp their dreams in a glamorous world, I realized how much courage it gave me, and I became confident that even if I can’t make it with either just basketball or just art, there is something only I can do by combining basketball and art.

And now, my wish is to bridge the gap between the two fields I’ve been devoted to, basketball and art, by sharing material that connects the two with the world. The NBA is inherently deeply connected with art, fashion, and music. I feel that expressing that in my own way here in Japan is my calling.

Since the NBA is a league across the ocean, some might feel it has a high barrier to entry. In the beginning, I was also asking questions like, “What’s a conference?” and “How many teams are there?” But nowadays, if you subscribe to the NBA app you can watch matches in real time from anywhere in the world, and you can easily find highlight videos on social media. There are many NBA players who share snippets of life off the court on their personal social media accounts; things like what they wear, their time with family, or workout scenes, which is typically not something the team shares, so you might find them surprisingly relatable. Try watching the full NBA season first (games, the draft, etc.) and when you find a team or player you’re interested in, follow them on social media―your level of understanding will keep growing and you’ll definitely fall in love with the NBA!”

The illustration of John Wall that MQ drew as artist “MQ” for the first time. She says she spent a lot of time on this piece and kept drawing and erasing so many times she thought she wore the paper down.

A series from around the time people started recognizing “MQ’s art” on her social media account. She received a comment from Bradley Beal saying “This is art.”

With the Wizards’ cooperation, she held her first solo art exhibition in Tokyo and Tokushima. About 500 NBA fans attended.

Artwork created for the announcement put out by the Wizards for the 2022 NBA Japan Games.

Meeting the players at the Japan Games. During the event, Beal carried the illustration she gave him and told her, “I’ve been bringing it everywhere with me.”

“The Dub” sign used by Beal after winning a game.

Social media graphics for the 2022 Japan Games.

The team arranged for MQ to meet her idol Wall when she went to watch their game in December 2022, and he signed one of her illustrations.

A panel from the manga project “Boku-ra no NBA” (Our NBA).