NBA star Kyle Kuzma on Asian fashion and seeing ‘all the watches’ in Hong Kong

Kyle Kuzma arrived in Hong Kong early on Tuesday ahead of a game between a team packed with NBA stars and the best the Chinese Basketball Association has to offer, and said the region’s fashion scene was one of the things that kept him coming back.

The Washington Wizard, who won the NBA Finals in 2020 with the Los Angeles Lakers, is known for his unique outfits off the court and is no stranger to the catwalk, having strutted his stuff at New York Fashion Week.

“Shanghai is a really interesting, artsy, fashionable city that’s growing a lot,” Kuzma said. “I’m a big fan of Asian fashion, the denims, the silhouette, the bagginess.”

He also has an impressive collection of watches, from Rolex and Audemars Piguet to a one-of-a-kind De Bethune.

And although a regular visitor to mainland China, Kuzma was visiting Hong Kong for the first time and said he wanted to look at “all the watches” in a city well-known for its luxury wrist wear.

The 25-year-old is just the latest in a long line of NBA stars to have visited Hong Kong, and said he part of the attraction of making the journey was soaking up a different culture.

While Kuzma, Jimmy Butler, Paul George and James Harden will take to the court again at the Asian World-Expo in a charity game organised by the foundation run by Chinese NBA legend Yao Ming, the first three were out at the venue on Tuesday morning putting on a show against some of their CBA counterparts.

Kuzma said it was “unreal” to have fans all across Asia, adding he relished the distinct cultural themes that set the Eastern hemisphere apart.

“It’s a different culture, I’m really big on that,” Kuzma said. “Getting to meet people, see people and just see the way people move out here is very different to the Western world.”

However, the two sides of the globe certainly share a love of basketball, and Kuzma said he thought the influence of the likes of Kobe Bryant had been “huge and everlasting”.

“When you think about all the Asian countries that love basketball, I think our influence has been so global,” Kuzma said. “Kobe used to come over here, that was massive. And it’s only going to continue to grow.”