Dwight Ramos gives The GAME a preview of his fourth Japan B.League season, as well his experience as a Gilas Pilipinas stalwart under Tim Cone.
It’ll be a story of familiar faces in new places once the 2024-2025 Japan B.League season tips off in October. Pioneering Asian import Thirdy Ravena has taken his act to Dubai, while RJ Abarrientos and Greg Slaughter have returned home for the PBA and MPBL respectively.
Kai Sotto, Ray Parks Jr., and Kiefer Ravena all signed with new teams too after performing well in the past season. The same goes for Matthew Wright and AJ Edu who’s recovering from a torn meniscus.
But not for Dwight Ramos. Now in his fourth B.League season, the Gilas stalwart will be entering his third-straight campaign with Levanga Hokkaido after signing an extension last May.
Dwight is coming off a productive 2023-2024 season where he averaged a career-high 10.7 points, 31.6 percent three-point shooting, 3.8 rebounds, and 2.6 assists.
“They always take care of me, and they treat me really well. They recognize my talent, and they value me, so I have no reason to leave. It’s a nice place, nice team,” he told The GAME at the launch of G-SHOCK’s G-Steel GBM-2100 series, for which he is an ambassador.
Dwight was also offered team captaincy for the upcoming season, which further proves his point. “So it was pretty obvious to me that they really valued me. So that’s why I didn’t want to leave.
“I was excited about it because I’m a foreigner, not Japanese. So that’s why I was surprised but excited…The management just texted me and told me if I wanted to do it and of course I said yes,” he added.
There will be plenty more motivation for Dwight Ramos heading into another B.League season.
First is Gilas’ OQT run in Riga, where the Nationals came close to making the Paris Olympics. Throughout that run, Dwight averaged 13.7 points, five rebounds, and 3.7 assists in three games. Now, he’ll be using that experience to hold himself to a much higher standard.
“It motivated me, for sure, because it felt like we were so close to being in the Olympics that anything less than that just was not acceptable anymore. So I just want to play up to that standard every game,” he said.
“Just remembering how good those other teams were. I just need to keep getting better. When that time comes again, we’ll play again. Hopefully, we can change the result.”
Circling back to Japan, Dwight is yet to play the full 60-game season despite continued improvements. Limited to around 43 games per season, Dwight is hoping he’ll finally break through this number this time around.
“For sure, one of [my immediate goals] is that I want to play all of the games. I don’t want to miss one. Every year, I have something that makes me miss some games, some injuries or something. So I just want to finish all the games,” he says.
There’s also the shakeup for Filipino players in the league, making him excited to face them in new cities. In his view, these career moves will result in expanded opportunities for his longtime brothers in Japan.
“It’s going to be different for them. I’m sure they’re going to do even better. They’re only getting better with more experience in the league, and now they probably go to a team where they have more freedom that they can do what they want,” he said.
Long way to go
It’s been a long way for Dwight Ramos since he came into the B.League. From a newcomer with Toyama, he’s now coming in with more confidence, as well as an improvement in all facets of his game.
The hunger remains for the 24-year-old forward, who shared, “Just inspired [heading into the fourth season], working hard and disciplined this year. I say it every year, but I just try and make this my best year.”
As for his captaincy, Dwight only says he’ll try to be a vocal captain. It’s understandable, given that the timid Dwight seems to be more of a leader by example. But, this he can guarantee: “[I’ll] try and inspire the guys to keep playing no matter what’s happening throughout the whole season. Try and stay motivated.”
Besides his B.League season, up next for Dwight Ramos will be another Gilas run in November for the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers against New Zealand and Hong Kong. Given his familiarity with them, Dwight knows it’ll be a “fun” two games against these two squads.
The Tall Blacks, though, are a marked team for Saint Dwight.
“All the times I’ve played against New Zealand, they’ve always beaten us pretty bad. Hopefully this year, we can finally beat them,” he said.
“New Zealand was in the OQT too. Probably similar caliber right now [with Gilas]. But we’re going to test that in November,” Dwight later added, referring to their Piraeus OQT run.
At the same time, Dwight Ramos reunites with Tim Cone and his 12-strong pool. Early into our interview, the 24-year-old didn’t hesitate to praise Cone’s handling of Gilas.
Dwight cited Cone’s preference to “keep everybody together”, alongside his stern preference for familiarity. This was evident with Gilas’ 11-man roster in Riga following Scottie Thompson’s back injury.
“We stuck with the same team, kind of. And [we] haven’t changed too much, even though people are injured, so… Just trying to keep building every time,” Dwight recalled.
There’s also his experience with Cone’s vaunted triangle offense, which he described as meticulous and hard to figure out due to the various options within the system. This also gave him a firsthand view of something he used to watch as a kid on television.
“It was good, because when I was younger, I was just watching basketball, and I didn’t know what they were running, but Coach Tim shows us videos of Michael Jordan and Kobe [Bryant], and I just think back, ‘Oh, so that’s what they were doing back then’,” he recalled.
Banner Image from FIBA.