UPDATE
4:02 PM PT — A spokesperson for Rakuten tells us they’re confident they’ve fixed any lingering issues and will be ready for the next Lakers game.
Rui Hachimura made his debut as the Los Angeles Lakers’ newest addition on Wednesday … but a lot of his fans back home missed out on the action — ’cause the historic moment caused the NBA’s streaming service in Japan to crash.
The Lakers acquired the 24-year-old from the Washington Wizards earlier this week … shipping Kendrick Nunn and a handful of second round picks to secure the deal — making Rui the first Japanese-born player in Lakers franchise history.
Fans were quick to complain on social media about not being able to watch Rui check in towards the end of the first quarter of the Lakers’ home win over the San Antonio Spurs … forcing the streaming service to address the issue.
Rakuten — the Association’s official streaming partner in Japan since 2017 — released a statement on the matter … saying, “Starting around 12:20 PM Japan Time on Thursday, January 26, the NBA Rakuten site became inaccessible when a sudden surge in user traffic caused a server issue,” according to The Sun.
“This was around the time that the San Antonio Spurs vs. Los Angeles Lakers game tipped off.”
To resolve the issue, Rakuten says it made the game available on YouTube until the site was back up and running again.
Rakuten claims the problem was fixed … and service has returned to normal.
As for Rui, he had a solid outing in his debut … scoring 12 points and adding 6 rebounds in 22 minutes of action.