Bad, very bad. It's not even approaching mediocre.
There's no excuse for the bj-league office to have the English-language portion of its website updated only once a year, maybe twice, at most. It's ridiculous for a league that is growing, still relatively unknown (Go ahead: Ask 20 Japanese people at random to name three players in the bj-league. They won't be able to do it, not even two of them.)
This is a league now that has 19 teams, would've still been 20 if the Tokyo Apache had decided against bailing out, taking the easy way out, instead of building a plan that involved enough sponsors to help them make a profit. There's also about 100 foreign players slated to suit up in the league this season. That's no small number, nor is the nine foreign head coaches.
Overseas interest in the bj-league will increase, as more players, coaches, agents and people with various reasons to be interested in basketball find out they want to care about this league. And it's wise if the bj-league figures out a way to do more than the bare minimum (last year, for example, a non-functioning email address was posted on that page for several months before this reporter was told the email was never checked if the message received was in English); in fact, several months after the spring death of former Oita HeatDevils co-owner, league sponsor (several million dollars, by the way) and adviser Vince Rawl, he was still listed as an adviser on the page below. So much for attention to detail and reporting vital news in a timely fashion. This much is certain: If Rawl were Japanese, the news would've been rushed out by the league's PR department. But remember this: The league office has other priorities -- never-ending expansion.
This web page remains one of the symbols of the league's rapid growth, mismanagement and lack of leadership in key positions.
http://bj-league.com/html/en/index.html
This is a league now that has 19 teams, would've still been 20 if the Tokyo Apache had decided against bailing out, taking the easy way out, instead of building a plan that involved enough sponsors to help them make a profit. There's also about 100 foreign players slated to suit up in the league this season. That's no small number, nor is the nine foreign head coaches.
Overseas interest in the bj-league will increase, as more players, coaches, agents and people with various reasons to be interested in basketball find out they want to care about this league. And it's wise if the bj-league figures out a way to do more than the bare minimum (last year, for example, a non-functioning email address was posted on that page for several months before this reporter was told the email was never checked if the message received was in English); in fact, several months after the spring death of former Oita HeatDevils co-owner, league sponsor (several million dollars, by the way) and adviser Vince Rawl, he was still listed as an adviser on the page below. So much for attention to detail and reporting vital news in a timely fashion. This much is certain: If Rawl were Japanese, the news would've been rushed out by the league's PR department. But remember this: The league office has other priorities -- never-ending expansion.
This web page remains one of the symbols of the league's rapid growth, mismanagement and lack of leadership in key positions.
http://bj-league.com/html/en/index.html
