{"id":773589,"date":"2026-07-20T09:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/773589\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T09:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:09:16","slug":"las-vegas-adds-japan-national-team-guard-mai-yamamoto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/773589\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas adds Japan national team guard Mai Yamamoto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">LAS VEGAS (<a href=\"http:\/\/fox5vegas.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"http:\/\/fox5vegas.com\/\">FOX5<\/a>) \u2014 The Las Vegas Aces announced the signing of Japan Women\u2019s Basketball National Team member Mai Yamamoto to a rest-of-season contract Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Yamamoto scored 24 points and hit seven 3-pointers against Las Vegas in Japan\u2019s 94-78 exhibition victory over the Aces on April 26.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">MORE ON FOX5: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox5vegas.com\/2026\/07\/15\/hilton-grand-vacations-fires-employee-who-sent-racial-slur-via-social-media-aces-chelsea-gray\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.fox5vegas.com\/2026\/07\/15\/hilton-grand-vacations-fires-employee-who-sent-racial-slur-via-social-media-aces-chelsea-gray\/\">Hilton Grand Vacations fires employee who sent racial slur via social media to Aces\u2019 Chelsea Gray<\/a><\/p>\n<p>International career<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Yamamoto has competed in seven FIBA senior-level competitions, including the 2022 FIBA World Cup and the 2024 Olympics. At the Paris Games, she posted 17 points, three rebounds and five assists in Japan\u2019s 102-76 opening-game loss to the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">She helped Japan win gold at the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup \u2014 her first senior national team competition \u2014 and silver at the 2023 FIBA Asia Cup. Yamamoto was also named to the All-Star Five at the 2026 World Cup Qualifying Tournament in T\u00fcrkiye after leading Japan to a 2026 FIBA World Cup berth, averaging 15.0 points, 3.6 assists and 1.2 steals per game with an efficiency rating of 13.8.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">On the junior level, Yamamoto helped the Japan U18 National Team claim silver at the 2016 FIBA U18 Asia Cup.<\/p>\n<p>3&#215;3 experience<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Yamamoto also competed on Japan\u2019s 3&#215;3 U23 national squad. She helped Japan win silver at the 2018 FIBA U23 3&#215;3 World Cup, then helped the team claim gold at the 2019 edition \u2014 a historic first 3&#215;3 world title for Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Professional career<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Yamamoto signed with the Dallas Wings in February 2025 before being waived prior to the start of the season. She has played professionally in Japan for the Toyota Antelopes since 2017, helping the club win the Japan Basketball League championship in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS (FOX5) \u2014 The Las Vegas Aces announced the signing of Japan Women\u2019s Basketball National Team member&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[330057,330059,330056,330055,99,434,330058],"class_list":["post-773589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-japan-womens-basketball","tag-las-vegas-aces-2026-roster","tag-las-vegas-aces-signing","tag-mai-yamamoto-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-international-player"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}