Raised in Bakersfield Sakuragi played college basketball at UCLA and was a member of their 1995 National Championship team. On the NCAA Championship team in his freshman year he was named the team's most valuable freshman along with Toby Bailey. He was named to the All-Pac-10 first team during his sophomore and senior seasons and averaged 14.2 points per game in his four-year career at the school. He was selected by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the second round of the 1998 NBA Draft where he played one season. After playing overseas and ultimately starring in Japan Henderson changed his name to J.R. Sakuragi thinking a Japanese name would speed up the naturalization to be a Japanese citizen. Sakuragi played for the Japan national basketball team as they competed in the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship a qualifier for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The shirt is the classic UCLA home white with "UCLA" and his No. 52 affixed in blue tackle twill on the front and his name and a much larger No. 52 on the back in the same fashion. A Reebok tag appears on the front of the left tail along with a small flag tag with handwritten "6" L-B." Shirt has the recognizable blue and gold knitted elastic collar arm hole; shirt shows game use and is otherwise largely as-issued and problem-free.