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Japan Times
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Japan Times
Basketball bust-ups threaten ambitious Japan's hoop dreams
Japan has ambitious plans to become a basketball powerhouse but a row involving star player Rui Hachimura and disagreements over the domestic league's direction mean success is anything but a slam dunk. Once a minnow on the world stage, Japan qualified for last year's Paris Olympics and took eventual silver medalist France to overtime in the group phase, helped by a handful of NBA-affiliated players, including Los Angeles Lakers forward Hachimura. At home, the B. League is enjoying record attendances and revenue, with new arenas being built and ambitions to become the second-best league in the world behind North America's NBA. Chairman Shinji Shimada says the B. League's "mix of sport and live entertainment" offers Japanese fans something different. "Lots of people watch a B. League game for the first time and say it's more interesting than football or baseball, and they want to come back," he said in the B. League's plush office in central Tokyo. Shimada says the B. League is already catching up on a business scale with leagues in Europe and China and is taking steps to close the gap on the court too. Teams have signed players with NBA experience such as Alize Johnson, who played alongside stars like Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden with the Brooklyn Nets. Representatives of each of the B. League teams participating in this year's playoffs at an event in Tokyo on Monday | Jiji Johnson says he knew nothing about the B. League when he was in the NBA but he would recommend it to other players dropping below the elite level. "In terms of the money being guaranteed and the lifestyle, how they go about making sure everything is by the book, it makes players feel comfortable knowing there's not going to be anything fishy going on," he said. The B. League has also invested in local talent and last year brought back national team star Yuta Watanabe after six seasons in the NBA. The 30-year-old, who had never played professionally in Japan before, has struggled with injuries but he is back in action as the B. League playoffs approach. Watanabe and Hachimura are the two main faces of Japan's national team, who captured the public's imagination at the 2023 World Cup, which was co-hosted by Okinawa, when they qualified for the Paris Games. Japan performed respectably at the Olympics but the mood soured three months later when Hachimura threatened to quit the team after a scathing attack on Japanese basketball chiefs. The 27-year-old, by far the country's most successful player, accused the Japan Basketball Association of having a "profit-first" mentality. He also aimed a barb at head coach Tom Hovasse, who got the job after leading Japan's women to silver at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, saying the American had "not managed at a world level." Japan's Rui Hachimura (right) chest bumps with Yuta Watanabe during a game against Spain at the Tokyo Olympics in July 2021. | USA TODAY / via Reuters Hachimura has still not said whether he will return and Watanabe hopes relationships can be mended. "For him to say that publicly, there must have been a big build-up of stress," Watanabe said. "The lack of communication became a problem and I hope that can be fixed properly." Watanabe fears that communication issues could also derail the domestic league as it prepares to relaunch as the B. League Premier from the 2026-27 season. The league plans to introduce a salary cap and raise the number of overseas players allowed on the court at any one time from two to three. The plans have brought the league into conflict with the players' association, which worries that Japanese players will end up with less money and time on the court. Shimada insists the changes are necessary to raise the overall level and narrow the gap in quality between teams, giving fans more exciting games to watch. At such a delicate time for Japanese basketball, Watanabe is urging everyone to work together. "I'm a little worried what fans will think if it's a Japanese league but there aren't many Japanese players on the court," he said. "It's fine for people who want to watch high-level basketball but for fans who want to support the players, that's where a gap starts to appear. "A lot of fans are coming to games now but I worry if that will continue," he added.
NBC Sports
27-03-2025
- Business
- NBC Sports
NBA owners to discuss launching new league in Europe as early as 2026, would challenge EuroLeague
'While Europe continues to develop some of the best players in the world, many of our most recent MVPs, of course, are European, we think that the commercial opportunity has not kept pace with the growth of the game,' NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in January of a potential NBA-affiliated league in Europe. 'What we do at the NBA is we run leagues. We, of course, run the WNBA; we have the league in Africa I mentioned; we have the G League; and we have a 2K video league, so we operate five different leagues, and we think it's an expertise we have. 'So we are looking very closely to see if there's an opportunity to professionalize the game to another level here, to create a larger commercial opportunity.' Thursday, the NBA board of Governors will hear more about those plans in detail, according to multiple reports. Silver is not seeking a formal vote from the owners but is seeking guidance to move forward with the discussions. Nothing is yet official, but the plan is picking up steam. The plans for the new league include: • There could be between eight and 16 teams, some existing and some new. It could launch as early as 2026, although it likely is later than that. • This league would be a direct challenge to the existing EuroLeague structure. According to The Athletic, there is potential interest from four existing EuroLeague teams: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Fenerbahce (from Istanbul), and ASVEL (the team from Lyon, France, where Tony Parker is president). • The league would have new 'permanent' teams, and potentially, there would be a chance for some clubs to play their way into the league in a sort of promotion system (not unlike the current EuroLeague model). • New teams would be a 50/50 owned proposition with the league and new investors, including sovereign wealth funds (which are limited in how much they can invest in an NBA team). • The buy-in for those teams would be around $500 million. • This is a partnership between the NBA and FIBA, the latter of which has been trying to break the EuroLeague's current grip on the top teams. • The goal is to ultimately have teams in major cities around the globe, often tied to major European soccer clubs. Markets mentioned include London, Manchester, Berlin and Munich. For example, Qatar Sports Investments could own a new team in Paris, tied to its soccer powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain, the Athletic reports. The goal behind all this is money — both expanding the NBA brand and bringing in new revenue to the league. While the domestic market is still the primary revenue driver for the NBA, especially with the new television deal kicking in, the biggest growth opportunities for the league are international. While they will have questions, it's difficult to imagine NBA owners telling Silver anything other than to go forward with this effort — there are no real downsides for them at this point.
