Blog Archives - THE BJ-LEAGUE INSIDER

A few quick points

7/26/2013

*The competing Japan pro basketball leagues don't get enough media coverage to sustain or increase interest in the sport. A merger is needed for the greater good of the sport.

*Major media outlets view Japan pro basketball as an insignificant assignment. Blame leagues without direction for much of the nonsense.

*Necessary, big sponsorship deals come for leagues and sports with major media exposure on national level - opposite of Japan hoops.

*In Japan's six national sports dailies, almost zero space is devoted to Japan pro basketball. That is a crisis the sport must overcome.

Coaching continuity is necessary

7/24/2013

Every time a team changes coaches after one season or less time, it's do-over time for that team.

Players must learn the new coach's playbook, the new coach's communication style and his way of handling the ups and downs of a season. The same is true for the coach about his players.

And for a sport fighting to gain popularity and respect from the general public, the way things are being done has proven to be counterproductive.

In the often nonsensical existence that is the bj-league's way of doing things, the lack of continuity in the coaching ranks is a colossal problem. It's as big a problem as the league's lack of leadership in the marketing, public relations and executive departments.

What's often forgotten, or just plain overlooked, when a team fails to give a coach a few years to build a program is this: Players need continuity in order to develop both individually and as a unit. Sports is often about repetition and a reliance on instincts to make split-second decision on the fly - at quick speeds, too, in the up-and-down-the-court rhythm of basketball.

When the system keeps changing, players have to think about the new playbook, the new coach's way of doing things and the adjustments they must make with their teammates to give the coach results.

In short, remarkably high coaching turnover defies logic.

And consider this fact to illustrate the point: Of all the coaches who have come and gone since the bj-league started with six teams in 2005 and grown to 21 for the 2013-14 season, only two are still head coaches from that first season, but neither on his original team. Honoo Hamaguchi is with the Kyoto Hannaryz, now entering his third season there. He was the Sendai 89ers bench boss for the team's first six seasons. Dai Oketani, originally the Oita HeatDevils assistant coach in 2005, but quickly promoted to head coach, is now coaching his third team in the league (Iwate Big Bulls, second season) following a four-year stint and two titles while with the Ryukyu Golden Kings).

Nonstop turnover for the team leader creates additional chaos in a league that has not stopped expanding, either.

This isn't strategic planning. This is complete stupidity.

At some point there needs to be a push for stability across the board.

No merger, no progress ... and Yuta Tabuse

7/13/2013

Two trains traveling on parallel tracks with no final (or planned) destination is the most precise description I have given, and will continue to give for Japan men's basketball.

Those in charge clearly have no clear vision and no recognition of what it'll take to make legitimate, major changes to the sport. More times than not, they are throwing darts at the wall and hoping some of those darts hit a target, any target.

To disrupt the status quo, and promote rapid integration and cooperation of the sport between the JBL (now NBL) and the upstart bj-league, which began play in the fall of 2005, there needed (and still needs to be) to be a major event of real significance.

If Yuta Tabuse, the first Japanese to play in the NBA, had joined the bj-league, that would've added major gravitas to the young circuit, which continues to struggle to prove it can be viewed as a major league.

Looking back on Tabuse's decision to join the JBL's Link Tochigi Brex in 2008 after several seasons in the NBA Development Leaue and a four-game stint with the Phoenix Suns, a hoop pundit pointed this out:

"Something almost happened last year, before Tabuse joined the Tochigi Brex. The bj-league made him an offer of about $250,000 per season, which the league would pay, and he could choose which team to play for. Well, he took the offer from Tochigi. But if he had come to the bj-league, I bet some of the bj-league/JBA barriers would have come down."

Of course, there was pressure from within the JBA for Tabuse to not play in the bj-league. After all, he had his sights set on returning to the national team, which had not allowed a bj-league player to join (until Takumi Ishizaki in 2011). Never mind the fact that the bj-league provides stiffer competition at the guard position for Tabuse, what with each team having import guards -- there have been almost no import foreign backcourt JBL players in the past decade (and to prepare Japanese to challenge in the future for the NBA, this is a major flaw; imports are needed at ALL positions). It was all about politics, maintaining the status quo and failing to set a clear path for progress.

And look where the Japan national team is ... no Olympic qualifications since 1976 ... an 0-6 record at the William Jones Cup.

Where's the commitment to excellence?

7/13/2013

Promoting the game must take on a much greater role for if basketball ever has a chance to truly resonate as a major sport in Japan.

Looking back on the past bj-league season, for example, illustrated this in a profound way. The astounding number of games that don't have full coverage on TV is a major obstacle that hasn't been overcome despite the rapid expansion of the sport in markets all over Japan in the past decade, what with the six-team bj-league now up to 21 teams and the NBL (old JBL) and NBDL (JBL2) adding teams as well.

"(Toyama star Ira) Brown would be famous across Japan for some of the dunks he threw down against Nagano (Shinshu Brave Warriors) two weeks ago," a league observer pointed out, recalling a timeless moment from the past season. "Plays like that should be on Japan's version of "Sports Center" every night, or at least on some NHK Sunday night sports show.

"Way to go, smart leaders in the basketball world of the JBA/JBL/BJL/NBL, who keep wondering how to make basketball a major sport in this country."

The same old story

7/13/2013

The renamed National Basketball League, which was previously called the JBL (Japan Basketball League) faces the same basic existence it had with the previous name.

The name change is, more or less, window dressing.

"By the way, maybe the biggest problem in Japanese basketball is that so many JBL players are paid so much for doing so little," a longtime basketball pundit told me a few years ago. "No player other than (Yuta) Tabuse brings in enough revenue to justify the salary they get.

"If JBL teams really had to pay the players a salary that would allow the teams to break even, then the players would have to start working harder, and more would consider the bj-league an option."

Who's the boss

7/9/2013

Taking a look at who's on the bench for each of the league's teams for the start of last season and the upcoming season. The coaching carousel is as busy as ever in the always-changing league. As of today, here's the latest on who's in charge.

EASTERN CONFERENCE
                                           2012-13                            2013-14
Akita                                 Kazuo Nakamura             SAME
Aomori*                            --                                        Koju Munakata
Chiba&                            Shinji Tomiyama              --
Gunma                            Tadashi Hayashi               Ryan Blackwell
Iwate                                Dai Oketani                      SAME
Niigata                             Matt Garrison                   Fujitaka Hiraoka
Saitama                           Tracy Williams                 Takatoshi Ishibashi
Sendai                             Bob Pierce                      Shuto Kawachi
Shinshu                        Takatoshi Ishibashi         Ryuji Kawai
Tokyo                            Motofumi Aoki                 SAME
Toyama                           Bob Nash                        SAME
Yokohama                      Reggie Geary                  TBA
*2013-14 expansion team
&Defected to the NBL (renamed JBL)

WESTERN CONFERENCE
                                        2012-13                            2013-14
Fukuoka                       Atsushi Kanazawa          TBA
Hamamatsu                 Ryuji Kawai                      Tomoya Higashino
Kyoto                            Honoo Hamaguchi           SAME
Miyazaki*                     Junichiro Hongo               --
Nara&                           --                                        Koto Toyama
Oita                                Yukinori Suzuki                SAME
Osaka                            Zoran Kreckovic             Shunsuke Todo
Ryukyu                         Koto Toyama                   Tsutomu Isa
Shiga                             Al Westover                    TBA
Shimane                       Zeljko Pavlicevic             Vlasios Vlaikidis
Takamatsu                   Kenzo Maeda                SAME
*Team folded after 2012-13 season
&2013-14 expansion team

Impressions

7/7/2013

Herb Brown has watched (and organized) hundreds of thousands of practices and games in his more than 50 years in basketball.

He remains as excited about the game, as interested in every detail of every play and as committed to excellence as any coach I've ever met. And that comes from decades in the game as a head coach (including the Detroit Pistons in the 1970s), assistant coach, scout and instructor.

Working as the Japan women's national team adviser coach for the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship for Women, Brown brings a seasoned artist's approach to the job: like a painter carefully surveying the entire canvas -- that is, before painting each brushstroke -- in his role as a wise sage for Tomohide Utsumi's team.

Brown knows how important the playbook is for the Japan national team. He also recognizes that expanding the playbook and the tactics used by the players is an integral part of the process.

Teams must always reinvent themselves over the course of weeks, months and years. Knowing how and when to do so is not an exact science.

Helping Utsumi identify how this should be done for Team Japan is a vital role that Brown is playing.

Brown said his role is similar to that of a business consultant.

"I want to give him ideas," Brown said of Utsumi, "and help to teach the players."

At Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 2, Brown spoke very highly of Utsumi following Japan's third win in as many days over Mozambique on June 30. He said, "He's doing a great job of step-by-step (planning). He's established a great foundation."

Brown described the process of aiming for success in global basketball as similar to "building a skyscraper." He noted the Japan squad is not at the ground floor, but not at the top, either.

"To succeed, you really have to get better every single day," he said.

Utsumi and Brown have developed a comfortable rapport, according to Brown. And that makes him feel that his input is welcome -- and wanted.

"He has an open mind about what I tell him," said Brown.

The Japan women's national team last competed at the Olympics in 2004 in Athens, where it placed 10th overall.

Now, a new generation of players is in place to make a run for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

Herb Brown's younger brother Larry, the future great coach, played for Team USA's gold medal-winning team at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

So wouldn't it be a neat footnote to history if Herb Brown helps Japan book a spot in the 2016 Games?

*Recent column in The Japan Times: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2013/06/30/basketball/brown-imparting-wisdom-to-japan-squad/

You never know who you'll meet

7/4/2013

Vacationing in Cyprus in the spring of 2001, I visited a Nicosia sports club, where my Cypriot buddy Marinos and I played 2-on-2 pickup basketball against a retired Egyptian military officer (a general, I seem to recall) and his younger brother, an Associated Press writer named Hamza Hendawi.

Bigger, taller and stronger than me, the two Egyptians were difficult to defend. They played a scrappy, physical brand of ball.

Hendawi's career has included a number of major challenging assignments: the Iraq war, stating in in 2003; the turbulent years that have followed; and the Middle East as a whole.

He was promoted to bureau chief for the AP in Cairo in 2010.

In recent days, Hendawi's byline has appeared in publications spanning the globe, several stories on the coup d'etat of Egypt President Mohammed Morsi.

You never know who you'll run into.

State of affairs - Japan basketball in 2013

7/1/2013

Looking at the (mis)management of Japan basketball teams and the sport in general at the pro level here, one veteran observer shared his thoughts recently.

He writes:

"It has always been entertaining, if not actually 'fun' to try to predict the upcoming bj-league disasters. The fact that Oita is back again and again after proven failures means this season will be no different. At some point it seems almost certain that someone will fail and more bailout help will be needed. At least Miyazaki has mercifully gone away.

"But what are the chances the NBL gets away unscathed? Three months before their season openers and Kumamoto, Daytrick Tsukuba, and Hokkaido have websites that look like the team is barely there. Although surely things are going on behind the scenes. The new model is to head into summer without a coach or players, have some tryouts, and then by September 28 have a competitive team on the court that can draw fans and sell tickets?

"I'm sure the good teams in both the NBL and bj-league will be fine. But as for which team or which league will have the first fatality, hard to say.... What are the odds that all 33 (12 NBL, 21 bj-league) teams survive until the end of the season without players somewhere leaving because they haven't been paid, or league's stepping in to pay the bills, or a team folding in mid-season?"