Rui Hachimura’s unbelievably soft ejection might have cost Japan a win vs. France in 2024 Olympics

An ejection of Rui Hachimura in the fourth quarter highlighted some home-cooking for France in Japan’s upset bid at the 2024 Olympics.

The 2024 Olympics saw one of the games of the tournament for men’s basketball on Tuesday between Japan and France, but one tainted by some home-cooking from the officials.

The hosts came into the games as favorites, but Japan put up more than a valiant effort, led by Rui Hachimura. The underdogs were led by Rui Hachimura and more than held their own throughout, leading for large spans of the game.

However, in the fourth quarter, Hachimura was ejected for an incredibly soft unsportsmanlike foul. Having already committed one earlier in the game, Hachimura was assessed as a second one for a fairly mundane foul on Rudy Gobert, leading to him being ejected from the game.

The FIBA game is obviously different than the NBA game, but there’s no chance that is even reviewed in an NBA game. If that’s an unsportsmanlike foul, LeBron James has at least two of those committed against him each game in the Olympics.

At the time, Hachimura was absolutely balling, too, after a tough showing his Japan’s first game. He finished with 24 points on 10-16 shooting overall and 3-5 shooting from the arc.

Even without him, Japan not only stayed close but held a four-point lead with 16 seconds left. But in another bit of questionable officiating, Matthew Strazel connected on a 3-pointer while being “fouled” to tie the game and force overtime.

Japan didn’t bathe itself in glory on that defensive possession, including doubling Rudy Gobert inside the arc. But, also, there didn’t appear to be any contact on Strazel outside of a hand on the hip, which is, again, a very soft foul.

Predictably, in overtime, France grabbed control of the game. A couple of late 3-pointers by Japan forced France to knock down some late free throws to fend off a comeback, but the hosts saw the game out fairly comfortably.

Japan will likely look back and point to things they could have done differently in this one, but they also did more than enough to win this game and two close, controversial calls going against them are going to be tough pills to swallow.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.