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Catching up with ... Justin Allen

5/27/2013

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In a recent email interview with Justin Allen, former Arizona State University forward and pro player, including two seasons with the Oita HeatDevils (2005-07), it was intriguing to learn all about the life that he has created for himself since leaving the bj-league.

I asked Justin, who resides in Arizona, to give a rundown on his projects and the numerous projects that keep him busy.

He broke it down this way:

 I am doing a ton of things right now and I am very excited about all that I have going.

1. Chase My Passion
2. "No You Can't, Yes I Can" book
3. Passion4ball Basketball
4. Pathwayze

He continues:

I have created the Chase My Passion website which focuses on motivating others to chase their Passion in life.  The thought is to provide motivation, inspiration, public speaking, and I am launching the new book via "Chase My Passion."  Basketball was always my passion and I was lucky enough to follow my dreams and do what I love.  I continue to use my passion to open up doors and it has provided me more and more opportunities even after I have finished playing. I have always wanted to inspire others to follow whatever dreams they have no matter what stands in their way. 

I have written and we are now working on the illustrations for the new book now "No You Can't, Yes I Can."  The book is really a story of my life and how I have had to overcome obstacles and challenges to reach my dreams. Growing up in a small town, playing at the next level, overcoming cancer, playing after my battle with cancer, and even being able to write a book that I have always wanted to do. The book is going to be for children and the message is if you want something, go after it. 

Don't let others knock you down, tell you that you can't do it, or let anything stand in your way. In the story the boy is constantly faced with challenge after challenge, but he constantly tells himself "Yes he can," and then through each obstacle he succeeds. The Jimmy V Foundation has given me the rights to use the name and logo, and 10 percent of the profits will go to the Jimmy V Foundation. I am also planning on going to hospitals to read it to kids and others who are going through a battle (similiar to my cancer battle) and I also want to do some readings at schools as well.

There aren't enough hours in the day to accomplishment all that Allen want to get done.

Let him explain it:

I have created a non profit basketball club called Arizona Passion4ball. The goal of this club is to provide youth athletes opportunities to earn college scholarships via the game of basketball.  We focus on the fundamentals of the game of basketball, while also teaching the fundamental life skills. We have an opportunity to teach kids about loyalty, hardwork, teamwork, competitiveness, desire, overcoming obstacles, time management, discipline, etc. We teach this to them in the sense of being compeititve on the basketball court and since we have their attention, because they have so much passion for the game, we have a forum to share this to help develop their personal life. Our teams then go and compete in tournaments in front of scouts, writers, and college coaches in efforts to earn schilarships at the next level. I would say that about 80 percent of my kids end up earning a scholarship at some level ( Junior College, NAIA, D3, D2, or D1).

What else?

He had much more to say:

The most exiting thing I have going on is a new company that I have created called Pathwayze. We are at the infinite stages of this project and we are still keeping it low key and under wraps until we are ready to launch. With this said, it is best explained as an athletic social community aimed and help persons down their path in life. Every person has a path to success, how did you get there and how do you plan on continuing down that Path. Without getting into any details, that is really what the basis of the company is about...

We are very very very excited about this project and we think it is going to be huge. We have some big players in the States on board and we have a lot of great resources to make this happen. We are hoping to launch in the next three months...
 
His closing message?

We are inviting people to come to the site and share their "No you can't, yes I can" story and also share their path in life to their success or their path that has lead them to where they are now.

For more information, visit the following online sites listed below.

Pathwayze: 
Twitter:
pathwayze@pathwayze
Facebook: facebook.com/pathwayze
Website: 
www.pathwayze.com

Chase My Passion:
Website:    
www.chasemypassion.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChaseMyPassion

Passion4ball:
Website:
www.passion4ball.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/passion4ball
Twitter: justinallen@passion4ball



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Will the trend end?

5/26/2013

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Entering the 2012-13 bj-league season, the past two champion head coaches, Kazuo Nakamura (Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix, 2010-11) and Dai Oketani (Ryukyu Golden Kings, 2011-12), departed before their teams were dethroned.

Of course, both men grabbed that impressive second title in the aforementioned years before moving on to the next challenge.

Nakamura resurfaced in Tohoku as bench boss for his hometown Akita Northern Happinets after leading the Phoenix to back-to-back titles. This will be his final coaching destination, he insists. He plans to run the team until he's 75 -- maybe 80 if he remains as energetic as he has in recent years.

Oketani also landed on his feet in Tohoku, bringing instant credibility and title-contending credentials to the Iwate Big Bulls in their second season.

A week ago, Reggie Geary guided the Yokohama B-Corsairs to the franchise's first championship, which came in its second season. A big deal, indeed.

Will Geary return to the B-Corsairs?

Will the team give him an offer he can't refuse?

Will someone else - in the college or pro ranks -- do that?

We shall see.
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A stark contrast

5/25/2013

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The Niigata Albirex BB and Saitama Broncos broke away from the JBL to form the bj-league along with a quartet of new teams -- Sendai 89ers, Oita HeatDevils, Tokyo Apache and Osaka Evessa -- for the 2005-06 season.

What the Albirex and Broncos have accomplished since that time occupy different spots on the performance chart.


Niigata has been a perennial playoff contender, including a championship runnerup spot in the inaugural season and a Final Four appearance last week, among three other trips (2006-07, 2009-10, 2010-11) to the league's final weekend of playoff action. The Albirex have a 219-162 regular-season record and finished above .500 five times. Their worst season? Finishing four games below .500 (24-28, in 2008-09).

Saitama has never had a winning season since switching allegiances from the JBL to the bj-league, and never reached the playoffs. This is stunning in a league that has added new teams every year. The Broncos have a 124-246 overall record, with 33 or more losses in five of those eight seasons, including a disastrous 15-37 record this season. No coach has lasted more than once season other than David Benoit, who held the post for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons.




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A great opportunity

5/13/2013

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Four head coaches -- Kyoto's Honoo Hamaguchi, Fukuoka's Atsushi Kanazawa, Niigata's Matt Garrison and Yokohama's Reggie Geary -- are attempting to win their first championship as a bj-league coach.

Their teams are also seeking title No. 1. Which makes this weekend's Final Four an exciting time for basketball fans of those teams and for the entire league.

A first-time champion will bring incredible joy to that team's fans and the remarkable sense of accomplishment that comes with it.

To reach this point, all four teams have made incredible sacrifices in practice, day after day, week after week. The players have embraced their coach's way of doing things. Many players have also reduced their workload this season for the benefit of their team's productivity, while others have accepted even greater responsibility than they've had in past seasons.

The Eastern Conference's Final Four representatives, Niigata and Yokohama, are the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds. They were separated by one victory during the regular season.

The West's two semifinalists -- Fukuoka and Kyoto -- are seeded second and fifth, respectively.

The Hannaryz have made up the most ground, climbed the most in the standings along the way. As reported on many occasions in my Japan Times articles, they were 0-8 to start the season. That was rock bottom, and since then the ascent has been impressive, continuous and far from surprising.


Based on their talent and experience, all four teams possess a quality mix of veterans and younger players that combined to do the following in the regular season: Niigata (36-16 record), Yokohama (35-17), Fukuoka (34-18) and Kyoto (29-23). All four of these teams had .500 or better records both at home and on the road.

Niigata's top-eight rotation features guys with a lot of experience in this league: guards Shuhei Komatsu, Nile Murry, Hirotaka Kondo, Kimitake Sato; forwards Yuichi Ikeda and Rodney Webb; and centers Taj Finger and Chris Holm. When their shots are falling, which is often the case, Komatsu, Ikeda and Sato are among the most explosive Japanese scorers in the league. Sato and Ikeda have been among the most consistent native players in the league for years now. Murry's all-around athleticism and strength have made him one of the elite guards in this league since he first suited up for the Toyama Grouses in 2006. Holm is a rebounding machine, plain and simple, but also has a deft passing touch and a solid scoring ability. Webb and Finger are versatile and fit in well in Garrison's system.

Yokohama has a potent scoring trio, its Big Three (Draelon Burns, Thomas Kennedy and captain Masayuki Kabaya), that propelled the team on offense. Burns thrives coming off the bench, a role that Geary has wisely utilized. Guards Minoru Kimura, Kenji Yamada, Seiji Kono and Satoshi Hisayama have made important contributions this season, too, while Shawn Malloy and Faye Pape Mour have shared the heavy workload in the trenches, the latter growing in confidence and effectiveness as a second-year pro.

For Fukuoka, bringing in veteran frontcourt standouts Julius Ashby, Reggie Warren and Josh Peppers quietly delivered a message to the team's fans that there was a sense of urgency for the 2012-13 season -- to win now. Bolstered by guards Akitomo Takeno, Jun Nakanishi, Satoshi Ishitani and Masahiro Kano, the Rizing have a veteran core, guys who have played a lot of minutes in this league. Nakanishi has been around since Day One. Warren and Ashby have made their mark since the second season. In addition, Peppers, one of then-bench boss John Neumann's top acquisitions, was the second-leading scorer in 2007-08, the third season, at 22.2 points per game, and has only grown as an impact-making player as his hoops IQ has risen. Guard Justin Johnson has provided a scoring spark off the bench in 38 regular-season games (6.0 ppg) since joining the club.

Signing David Palmer, league MVP in 2006-07 for the champion Osaka Evessa, gave Kyoto a proven leader with three championship rings, including last season's title with Ryukyu. A terrific pure shooter, Palmer is a better-than-average rebounder and passer and fits in perfectly with Hamaguchi's team-first style of basketball. Fellow newcomers Yu Okada, Masaharu Kataoka, Marcus Cousin, Gyno Pomare and Hayato Kantake all stepped into the spotlight and made key contributions. Jermaine Boyette, Sunao Murakami and Kyosuke Setoyama experienced the challenge of reaching the Final Four for the first time last May and were counted on to guide the team to success this season.  (The 26-year-old Cousin is the one guy with NBA regular-season game experience among the participants for the Final Four. Indeed, he may be hungry to have a great showing to remind NBA talent evaluators that he's a guy they should consider offering a spot to for next season.)

All four teams have solid rosters.


What will be the deciding factors in the  Final Four? Many times, a hot-shooting player or a key spurt can carry a team to the team. Or an terrific defensive effort -- locking down one big scorer, denying easy 3-point shots or in-the-paint chances -- may prove to be the No.1 key.

We shall see.
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    Ed Odeven

    I'm a sports writer, columnist and editor for The Japan Times.
    This site is an extension of my work covering the bj-league. News, commentary, notes, quotes and anecdotes about the bj-league.

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