Toshimitsu Kawachi, former national team head coach and current bj-league commissioner has played a major role in building the league, including the gutsy defection of the Niigata Albirex BB (his old club) and Saitama Broncos from the JBL to form the upstart league.
Many may overlook the significance of Kawachi's impact on the sport. Or refuse to acknowledge it. A longtime hoop observer offered thought on this and other related topics in an interview this past season.
"Very true that merger or no merger, new league or not, it won't improve the National Team," the source said candidly. "In fact I think it's a real mistake to tie a professional league and the National Team too closely together. They should cooperate as much as possible, but they inherently have conflicting goals.
"Not sure the 3,477 fans that saw the Niigata-Okinawa overtime thriller felt they were being shafted by any division/confusion. In fact the hotbeds of fan support in the bj-league (Okinawa, Sendai, Akita, Niigata) are all places long ignored by the JBL and would continue to be so. Kawachi may have his faults, but he's still the visionary and hero in all of this. Maybe it could have been done better, but the bottom line is that without Kawachi and the bj-league ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN DONE over the last six years. Love him or hate, you have to give him credit for getting things moving in a country were inertia rules.
"One thing that drives me crazy is this idea that EVERY player in the JBL is better than EVERY player in the bj-league. You have 5-6 really good Japanese players in the JBL, maybe 10, and all the rest are more or less the same. The entire country is filled with players with bj-league level talent. The JBL is filled with players with bj-league level talent. And none of the 5-6, maybe 10 really good Japanese players in the JBL are as good as the top imports in either league.
"Personally, I would like to see all those JBL players split up and spread out on about 30 bj-league style teams playing with 3 imports on the court. That would give each Japanese player plenty of playing time. Almost all Japanese players are guards. You don't need and can't play 10 guards. Split them up on lots of teams, and then they all get to play. Let the best rise to the top. As it is now, many Japanese players who would be pretty good in the bj-league are sitting on the bench collecting a paycheck in the JBL because they have 12 Japanese players but only 5-6 play in the games.
"Every time this topic comes up, Toshiba and Toyota also come up as teams that won't join a professional league. So it always sounds to me like the idea is dead before it even gets talked about. And while people seemed shocked that the bj-league will try to expand to 20 teams, there are more that want to join. So it could go up to 22 or 24 in another year or two (or back down a bit if a few weak teams are mercifully dropped...).
"Since no bj-league teams (other than Tokyo or maybe Hamamatsu) could ever hope to match the spending of the JBL teams, I don't see how anyone is going to be joining them. So the real question is, will any of the JBL teams join the bj-league? If not, merger, new league, it's finished already."
***
More insight on Kawachi from our basketball insider:
"It's interesting to attempt to summarize someone's legacy before that person has fulfilled their ultimate goal. In Kawachi's case, it's the goal of building a thriving pro league with a much-improved national team that consistently competes in the Olympics. To pull off what he's accomplished to date, has taken guts and patience and plenty of finesse and frank talk with various movers and shakers across this nation where the status quo is a powerful force.
"With the factions and old-boy (OB) networks what they are in Japan, Kawachi is one of only two or three people in all of Japan that could have broken away and started a new league," the source said. "The fact is, he is the only one with the vision and courage to actually do it.
"Even if you don't like the specific way the bj-league has developed, if you were to try to start a new league in Japan from scratch, with no major company backing, you would end up with something very similar to the bj-league.
"People with dreams and visions aren't always good with specifics or day-to-day management. Kawachi is in that category. Maybe everything he says can't/won't happen. If you are expecting that 100 percent of what he says will happen, you're going to be disappointed. But if you focus on that final vision, you can see that slowly it is becoming reality."
He added: "I know a couple of individuals in Japan with more power than Kawachi, but they had no vision, and only supported the status quo. A few others had great ideas, but no power or way to make them happen.
"Maybe not now, but 10-20 years from now he might be seen as the most important figure in Japan basketball history. Or maybe not. But I would never bet against him."
Interesting times, indeed.
"Very true that merger or no merger, new league or not, it won't improve the National Team," the source said candidly. "In fact I think it's a real mistake to tie a professional league and the National Team too closely together. They should cooperate as much as possible, but they inherently have conflicting goals.
"Not sure the 3,477 fans that saw the Niigata-Okinawa overtime thriller felt they were being shafted by any division/confusion. In fact the hotbeds of fan support in the bj-league (Okinawa, Sendai, Akita, Niigata) are all places long ignored by the JBL and would continue to be so. Kawachi may have his faults, but he's still the visionary and hero in all of this. Maybe it could have been done better, but the bottom line is that without Kawachi and the bj-league ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN DONE over the last six years. Love him or hate, you have to give him credit for getting things moving in a country were inertia rules.
"One thing that drives me crazy is this idea that EVERY player in the JBL is better than EVERY player in the bj-league. You have 5-6 really good Japanese players in the JBL, maybe 10, and all the rest are more or less the same. The entire country is filled with players with bj-league level talent. The JBL is filled with players with bj-league level talent. And none of the 5-6, maybe 10 really good Japanese players in the JBL are as good as the top imports in either league.
"Personally, I would like to see all those JBL players split up and spread out on about 30 bj-league style teams playing with 3 imports on the court. That would give each Japanese player plenty of playing time. Almost all Japanese players are guards. You don't need and can't play 10 guards. Split them up on lots of teams, and then they all get to play. Let the best rise to the top. As it is now, many Japanese players who would be pretty good in the bj-league are sitting on the bench collecting a paycheck in the JBL because they have 12 Japanese players but only 5-6 play in the games.
"Every time this topic comes up, Toshiba and Toyota also come up as teams that won't join a professional league. So it always sounds to me like the idea is dead before it even gets talked about. And while people seemed shocked that the bj-league will try to expand to 20 teams, there are more that want to join. So it could go up to 22 or 24 in another year or two (or back down a bit if a few weak teams are mercifully dropped...).
"Since no bj-league teams (other than Tokyo or maybe Hamamatsu) could ever hope to match the spending of the JBL teams, I don't see how anyone is going to be joining them. So the real question is, will any of the JBL teams join the bj-league? If not, merger, new league, it's finished already."
***
More insight on Kawachi from our basketball insider:
"It's interesting to attempt to summarize someone's legacy before that person has fulfilled their ultimate goal. In Kawachi's case, it's the goal of building a thriving pro league with a much-improved national team that consistently competes in the Olympics. To pull off what he's accomplished to date, has taken guts and patience and plenty of finesse and frank talk with various movers and shakers across this nation where the status quo is a powerful force.
"With the factions and old-boy (OB) networks what they are in Japan, Kawachi is one of only two or three people in all of Japan that could have broken away and started a new league," the source said. "The fact is, he is the only one with the vision and courage to actually do it.
"Even if you don't like the specific way the bj-league has developed, if you were to try to start a new league in Japan from scratch, with no major company backing, you would end up with something very similar to the bj-league.
"People with dreams and visions aren't always good with specifics or day-to-day management. Kawachi is in that category. Maybe everything he says can't/won't happen. If you are expecting that 100 percent of what he says will happen, you're going to be disappointed. But if you focus on that final vision, you can see that slowly it is becoming reality."
He added: "I know a couple of individuals in Japan with more power than Kawachi, but they had no vision, and only supported the status quo. A few others had great ideas, but no power or way to make them happen.
"Maybe not now, but 10-20 years from now he might be seen as the most important figure in Japan basketball history. Or maybe not. But I would never bet against him."
Interesting times, indeed.