Rui Hachimura Took A Page Right Out Of The Barstool Bro Show Playbook And Is Working Out With Sumo Wrestlers To Prepare For The NBA Season

Michael Hickey. Getty Images.

When it comes to the NBA offseason, as a fan all you're really looking for is enough propaganda to get you through the summer and to allow your brain to go to dangerous places while you convince yourself that "this year" is going to be different. That propaganda can come in a wide variety of ways, all of which do the trick. You have the open run highlights of your favorite player looking incredible (while playing lesser competition). Maybe they're showing off a new move, or an improved shooting range etc. Other times, it can be videos of them in the weight room or videos of them working out on the beach etc.

If you're Luka Doncic, you have a legit media tour to talk about and show off how in shape you are now. That entire week of propaganda was like catnip for Lakers fans, and that's really the entire point. These summer months are exactly what that type of shit is for. We as fans want to believe, we want to feel hope and excitement for the upcoming season. Even if in reality 99.9% of the shit you see over the summer never actually makes a difference come October (think Ben Simmons shooting, Mitchell Robinson going coast to coast shooting 3s etc), last time I checked it's only August, so you may as well keep the propaganda flowing.

Take Rui Hachimura, for example. Did we need to know he was working out with Sumo wrestlers in Japan? Not really. But that's not the point.

Why can't that help with his strength and balance? Even though technically LeBron is listed as the PF, it can only help Rui handle the workload of guarding opposing bigs if he works on his core and his strength. Last season, Rui ranked in the 35th percentile in post defense, allowing 1.09 points per possession and 60% shooting, which kind of stinks. Post ups against Rui led to points 55.9% of the time, so it's fair to say this could be an area of improvement to work on over the summer. You may laugh, but at least he's putting in work.

But this is not another pro-Lakers blog. In fact, the only reason I'm blogging this is because in 2025, you get the sense that some readers of this fine website might not know or even remember some of the stuff from the "old" era of Barstool, and if you've been reading/following this site since the beginning, then that Rui clip should have immediately brought you all the way back to 2013. For those who have no fucking idea what I'm talking about, well allow me to bring you back to the days of the Barstool Bro Show.

The same way we'll probably see TV networks like Bravo eventually copy the Barstool Beach House reality TV show format of live social clips, as you can see by the all time Barstool video above, NBA players are coming around to the type of training that Dave and Big Cat were doing in 2013. As someone who generally hates the whole "things were better way back when" bullshit you always seem to get nowadays, I'd by lying if I said watching this video and really all the old Barstool Brow Show videos doesn't make me feel nostalgic for a simpler time. There truly was nothing like it on the entire internet, you just had to be there. It's what made Barstool different, and in my opinion, is the foundation for everything we see today, including my entire blogging career.

If stuff like this didn't exist in 2013, Peter Chernin probably never gets involved in 2016. If that doesn't happen, I'm most likely still just writing for free while working my normal ass 9-5 in advertising. So in a way, things like the Barstool Brow Show not only saved my life from the cubes, but it's basically the entire reason I even exist on this platform.

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For newer stoolies out there, I suggest you stop trying to work today and just spend the time going through the old episodes. There are too many classics to list here, but some of my other personal favorites are the 2-on-1 battle vs Tony Scheffler

Or the punting challenge with Zoltan Mesko

Just an incredible time to be on the internet. It's hard to believe it's been 12 years since all this stuff, so I apologize if that now makes you feel old as shit. Sometimes it's just fun to look back at the golden years, and frankly, nobody did it better.