News now: Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million ten-year contract with the Dodgers pushes Rui Hachimura with motivation.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Rui Hachimura is the most enthusiastic about the Los Angeles Dodgers’ upcoming offseason.

This past season, the native of Japan, who grew up playing baseball and loves the game, threw out the opening pitch at a Dodgers game.

The fact that the Dodgers and Hachimura signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani—two of Japan’s top baseball players—this offseason is what has Dodgers fans giddy.

Ohtani’s seven hundred million dollar, ten-year contract is the largest in sports history. Since Ohtani is the best baseball player in the world and earns a lot of money off the field, he can afford to defer a large portion of the money.

Hachimura, via Dan Woike of the L.A. Times, expressed his pride in Ohtani after realizing the magnitude of the contract:

 

Now that they are playing in the same city, Hachimura talked more about the motivation they can both derive from one another and the similarities he and Ohtani have in common:

With the large Japanese population in Los Angeles, it is beneficial for the city as a whole to have athletes like Hachimura, Ohtani, and Yamamoto to support.

Notably, a few years ago, Ohtani attended a Lakers game against the Washington Wizards, who at the time were Hachimura’s teammates. However, now that he’s a Lakers player, Hachimura needs to ask Ohtani to a different game this season.

Legendary Lakers player Kobe Bryant helped Shohei Ohtani sign a contract with the Dodgers.
It was made public shortly after Ohtani signed a contract with the Dodgers that legendary Lakers player Kobe Bryant had a significant influence. Ohtani, like many others, looked up to Bryant as a child because he was one of the few international superstars when he was playing.