By the time Rui Hachimura came to Gonzaga University for an official visit in October 2015, he had already been on the cover of Slam Magazine — the basketball and hip-hop culture bible — back home in Japan.
The son of a Japanese mother and a father from the West African nation of Benin, Hachimura became the first Japanese player ever selected in the first round of the N.B.A. draft on Thursday night at Barclays Center, where he went No. 9 overall to the Washington Wizards.
The moment is not lost on the 6-foot-8 Hachimura, who spent three seasons in relative anonymity at Gonzaga, in the West Coast Conference.