LOS ANGELES (Kyodo) -- Japan star Rui Hachimura said Saturday he is ready to step away from the national team if the Japan Basketball Association fails to change its management approach.

The Los Angeles Lakers forward on Nov. 13 criticized the association for what he perceived as its profit-oriented direction and its choice of men's head coach. On Wednesday, the JBA said the player's comments resulted from "miscommunication."

"I can't see a player-first mentality," Hachimura said about the JBA after returning from an ankle injury with 10 points in the Lakers' 127-102 loss to the Denver Nuggets.

"I don't want to play for the Japan national team under such a policy and organization...I'm really saying these things for the good of Japan basketball."

Recent comments from JBA Secretary General Shinji Watanabe and other sources familiar with the matter suggest that Hachimura has been unhappy with games Japan played at home, including a pre-Paris Olympics game against South Korea in early July.

Hachimura had informed the JBA well in advance that he was unable to participate due to physical conditioning issues. The association said it held back on announcing his absence in the hope he would play and not to drum up ticket sales.

He also questioned the level of opposition the JBA arranged at such a crucial period.

"(The JBA says) the national team needs money for its activities, but the question is how it is spent. To me, they are not player-first, but profit-first."

"I've been playing in the hope of raising the level of Japan. After my earlier comments, people, including those inside the JBA and its former employees, called me to say, 'I agree. It can only be seen that way.' I've heard these things have long been said, but without anyone coming out."

Hachimura also made his stance clear over the choice of Japan head coach Tom Hovasse, who renewed his contract on Oct. 25.

"I believe his training and meetings are not managed at the world level," Hachimura said of the 57-year-old American.

"The JBA top brass have been saying they chose a world-level coach, but they themselves haven't even seen the world in the first place. I don't think that makes sense."

Hovasse led the Japan women's team to the Tokyo Olympics silver medal in 2021 before becoming the men's head coach. He guided the team to the Paris Olympics with three wins at the 2023 World Cup in Okinawa, without Hachimura after he prioritized preparing for his upcoming season with the Lakers.

"We have a (talented) group of players that the country has never seen before," Hachimura said. "We got wins at the crucial World Cup because our young generation emerged. I don't think it makes sense to say we won only because the new head coach came in."

While stating his will to keep representing Japan, Hachimura said it is now in the JBA's hands to decide his and its future.

"Of course I want to play for Japan," he said as he expressed his desire to play at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. "But I no longer know how things will be."

"It's up to them. I've been telling them through my agent how things should be, but they don't want to follow it. I assume they have their way of doing things. I've been putting up with it all this time."