Random remarks while waiting for Super Bowl XLVI to begin...
-I just finished reading Kyoto Hannaryz center Lance Allred's first book, "Longhots: The Adventures of a Deaf Fundamentalist Mormon Kid and His Journey to the NBA," and it says here Allred's book is remarkably insightful, well written, funny and highly recommended. Find it on Amazon.com. Learn about the disappointments and accomplishments of a player as he awaits his opportunity to reach the NBA, from childhood to that unforgettable callup.
-The Takamatsu Five Arrows' front office doesn't even pretend to care about winning. Just surviving the season is its only goal. While other teams have made major upgrades since the season started, the Five Arrows (2-28 after a 40-point loss on Sunday) remain the same. This team has major roster flaws that are evident to even the most casual observer. But the front office does nothing except field a team with little chance of winning -- game after game, week after week. It's pathetic. There are some good role players on the team, but the organization makes the entire bj-league look bad.
-There are several excellent candidates for Coach of the Year at this point. Among them: Toyama's Kazuaki Shimoji, who took over for Kohei Eto midway through last season and has slowly built the Grouses into a, believe it or not, Final Four contender; Matt Garrison, Niigata's first-year bench boss, who has had the team near first place for several weeks now; Hamamatsu's Ryuji Kawai, who had to fill a huge void left by Kazuo Nakamura after the latter bolted for Akita to coach his hometown team, the Northern Happinets; Yokohama's Reggie Geary, who has the expansion B-Corsairs at 15-15 after the weekend; Ryukyu's Dai Oketani, whose club is 24-6, the best record in the league; Kyoto's Honoo Hamaguchi, who has led the Hannaryz to a 20-8 start; and Osaka's Ryan Blackwell, who preaches defense, defense, defense and the results are paying off. No one would be shocked if Shiga's Alan Westover, Fukuoka's Tadaharu Ogawa or Shimane's Zeljko Pavlicevic steers his team to greater success in the coming weeks and into the Final Four, which would give them, you could insist, a real shot at the coaching award.
-Few guard tandem works as well together as Toyama's Masashi Joho and Takeshi Mito, as evidenced by the team's record (15-13) and steady production from both veterans.
-Time after time, Sendai coach Bob Pierce has found a way to instill greater confidence in his players. Sure, he believes in structure, but wants his players to think for themselves and let them make decisions that are based on the flow of the game. Far too often, Japanese players have been taught they must play by the book, do things according to a set offense or set defense. Creativity, be damned; play the game, they are told. Well, under Pierce's sharp tutelage, Japanese player after Japanese player has gotten better. Examples include Joho (at Shiga); Makoto Sawaguchi, Yuki Kikuchi and Ryosuke Mizumachi (at Akita); and, this season, Takehiko Shimura and Takuya Komoda (at Sendai). Sometimes players are over-coached. Pierce has found a way to get through to his players, including many up-and-coming Japanese, and given the the mental lessons they need in order to have greater success.
-Last time I checked, Osaka's Cohey Aoki's total number of free-throw misses were still in the single digits. Wow. The 2011-12 season is now in its fifth month. Cohey's commitment to his craft, and the work he puts in to stay as good as he is, can be a lesson for all players.
-The Saitama Broncos are in their seventh season in the bj-league. Barring a miracle finish, the team will post its seventh consecutive non-winning season. And then expect a roster shakeup in the offseason as the team will build from scratch again. By having such poor leadership in the front office, the Broncos create little interest among the nation's media to provide coverage of their team. Sad but true. Case in point: After the Jan. 29 home game at Saitama Municipal Gymnasium, two reporters (including yours truly) were there for the post-game news conference. Two reporters. Baseball and soccer seasons have not begun. There's not a lot of weekend sports going on right now and in a metropolis and region with more than 30 million people, there were only two reporters there to speak to head coaches Natalie Nakase of Saitama and Zeljko Pavlicevic of Shimane. Well, when people expect a team to be mediocre year after year, it greatly decreases the interest in a team. That carries over to the bj-league's national TV schedule, too. Only one of the team's 52 games (Feb. 18: Saitama vs. Osaka) is scheduled to be shown on national TV, BS Fuji. You do the math; 1/52 is not a very big number, and reminds anyone paying attention that under GM/president Narita's long, chaotic tenure there's been one constant: failure. The Broncos have been called the L.A. Clippers of the bj-league, but, a funny thing happened in December 2011: the Clippers made some big moves (adding Chauncey Billups and Chris Paul, for instance) and transformed themselves into a playoff-caliber team. Narita, with expansion team after expansion team entering the league every season, hasn't found a way to finish above .500 or even make the playoffs once since the upstart league began play in 2005. No wonder TV execs are focused on showcasing other teams.
-More Broncos: In the past few years, I've spoken on several occasions to more than a dozen ex-Bronco players after their departure from the team, and not one of them had anything positive to say about the direction of the franchise at any team. None of them said the team's front office, especially Narita, appeared to be committed to winning or even took the concept of winning seriously. My reply? The proof is in the numbers. And it's a true disgrace.
-Shimane's Jeral Davis swatted 16 shots in the Susanoo Magic's two wins over the Broncos on Jan. 28-29. This weekend, Sendai's Rashaad Singleton had back-to-back seven-block outings. Seems like a nice friendly competiton between Davis and Singleton, former summer roommates.
-Ryukyu's Jeff Newton, the only four-time title winner in league history, has been named to one Best Five team, in 2008-09. Individual accolades are nice, but as Newton will tell you, "I only care about winning." It's not a coincidence that the Golden Kings became instant title contenders the minute Newton left the Evessa -- after their third championship -- and joined the Okinawa franchise. That remains the biggest transaction in league history. The second? The Tokyo Apache hiring Bob Hill, the first former NBA head coach to be a bj-league bench boss, to lead the team last season.
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