MANILA, Philippines -- Dwight Ramos is ecstatic in being a team captain of his Japan B.League squad Levanga Hokkaido, as he aims to win more games in the upcoming season.
Ramos, along with teammate Ren Shimatani, were named as team captains last week.
The 25-year-old guard, who graced the launching of the G-Shock G-Steel GBM-2100 series watch at the SM Megamall on Friday, said that he is relishing the opportunity to be named skipper despite being a foreigner.
“I’m excited. They chose me even though I’m a foreigner, I’m not Japanese,” he told Philstar.com.
“So, there’s gonna be some obstacles there but I’m willing to take that.”
Ramos stressed that he is aiming to win more games in the upcoming season, after the team had 17 victories against 43 defeats last year.
“I’m super excited. I really wanna do my best this year. I’m feeling really good about this year especially coming from the [FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament],” he said.
Ramos was part of the Gilas Pilipinas squad that stunned World No. 6 Latvia in the Olympic qualifiers last month.
“[My goal is] to play all 60 games and to win more games than last year.”
And with this, Ramos said that he might have been chosen because of his experience playing international ball. And now as team captain, he can impart his knowledge on a much larger scale.
“I think it’s maybe because of my experience that I’ve been playing internationally so long already that they kinda look at me for some advice sometimes and being the captain now, I could voice it out to everybody instead of just one-on-one talks.”
Last year, Ramos averaged 10.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game for Levanga Hokkaido.
The league's next season will tip off later this year.