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BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 12, 2012

Knicks may live up to hype this time

There's an old question you hear around the NBA sometimes. It goes like this: What's the definition of a dynasty?
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 7, 2012

Xi attempts communist makeover to repair image

Just three weeks after taking over as his country's top leader, Xi Jinping is trying to give Chinese communism a more common touch.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 7, 2012

Ishibashi steering Brave Warriors in the right direction

Takatoshi "Big Bashi" Ishibashi served as the Shinshu Brave Warriors' capable assistant coach during the team's inaugural season under Motofumi Aoki, the 2006-07 bj-league Coach of the Year.
BASKETBALL
Dec 5, 2012

Ex-MVP White blasts bj-league, plans to sue Oita

Former Oita HeatDevils star Wendell White met with team officials on Tuesday and repeated his demands that the team honor his expired contract 14 days after his salary was due.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Dec 3, 2012

Golden Kings hand HeatDevils a 73-point beating

Sunday's Oita HeatDevils-Ryukyu Golden Kings game was a farce from the get-go. And the 1,286 spectators in attendance weren't treated to anything resembling a professional basketball contest.
BASKETBALL
Dec 2, 2012

HeatDevils suffer embarrassing loss to Golden Kings

The Ryukyu Golden Kings routed the host Oita HeatDevils in the second half on Saturday, turning a close contest into a 100-68 annihilation in Beppu, Oita Prefecture.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 30, 2012

Oita defaults on player salaries, asks league to intervene

The Oita HeatDevils assembled one of the league's top rosters, a smart collection of veterans, and produced nine victories over their first 14 games, fewer wins than only one club in the 10-team Western Conference — the perennial powerhouse Ryukyu Golden Kings. More of the same appears impossible....
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 28, 2012

Cerebral Paul a true renaissance man

You don't hear much profound in sports locker room these days, even about sports.
BASEBALL
Nov 25, 2012

Samurai Japan fans will miss nation's MLB players in upcoming WBC

They are dropping like flies. Talking here about Japanese players in the major leagues who have decided they will not play in the World Baseball Classic in March. Yu Darvish, Hisashi Iwakuma, Norichika Aoki, Ichiro Suzuki and Hiroki Kuroda, members of their country's championship teams in 2006 and 2009,...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 23, 2012

Williams says changing Saitama track record not easy

Tracy Williams is the Saitama Broncos' eighth head coach since the team entered the bj-league in 2005. Only ex-NBA forward David Benoit lasted more than one season during his time at the helm — 2006-08 — and the Broncos were 36-48 in those two campaigns.
BASKETBALL
Nov 19, 2012

Garcia shoots Grouses past Broncos

Momentum shifts from time to time during an ordinary basketball game, and there are several big scoring spurts to witness.
BASKETBALL
Oct 29, 2012

Hamamatsu's Galloway orchestrates high-octane offense in impressive win over Shimane

You probably didn't know that Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix newcomer Kevin Galloway attended USC, College of Southern Idaho, Kentucky and Texas Southern before embarking on a pro career last year.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 26, 2012

Quick start gives perennial struggler Oita hope for successful year

The Oita HeatDevils entered the 2012-13 having played 328 regular-season games over the past seven seasons. The HeatDevils lost 200 of those games — a nice round number — and won on 128 occasions.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Oct 12, 2012

Iwate likely to emerge as power in Eastern Conference

In the rapidly changing bj-league, the Eastern Conference welcomes a pair of new franchise — the Gunma Crane Thunders and Tokyo Cinq Reves — to the fold this season, while the mighty Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix, a three-time finalist and two-time champion, shift to the Western Conference....
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 12, 2012

Geary confident Yokohama will contend with almost new foreign crew

The Yokohama B-Corsairs accomplished great things as an expansion franchise last season, defying the odds by reaching the Final Four.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Oct 8, 2012

Crane Thunders fall to Grouses in bj-league debut

The Gunma Crane Thunders recorded a loss in the first regular-season game in franchise history on Sunday, but coach Tadashi Hayashi's club proved to be a worthy challenger against the Toyama Grouses in the teams' bj-league season opener.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Sep 29, 2012

Former Evessa star Washington claims he is 'blackballed' despite exoneration

The Osaka Evessa and bj-league office claimed that Lynn Washington, one of the league's original superstars, retired on April 9 after he was exonerated of all charges following his arrest and 18 days in Osaka Prefectural Police custody.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Sep 23, 2012

Clutch 3-pointer propels Iran past Japan in FIBA Asia Cup final

In the game of basketball, making a big shot in crunch time is as important as total points and rebounds on the stats sheet that's distributed after a game.
BASKETBALL
Sep 22, 2012

Japan tops Qatar, advances to FIBA Asia Cup final

Entering the FIBA Asia Cup, Team Japan set a goal of advancing to the semifinals. Well, the last four is good, but at the same time it sounds like a compromising goal.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 14, 2012

Ex-referee says bj-league made wrong call with Yuzuki

Kunio Kurata, the bj-league's director of officials since its establishment in 2005, has quietly retired. That shouldn't come as a big surprise; after all, the Shizuoka Prefecture native will turn 61 on Nov. 27, so he reached the mandatory retirement age early in the 2011-12 season.
BASKETBALL
Sep 12, 2012

Cinq Reves add veteran center Jones

Veteran center Jonathan Jones, whose professional career has included stops in the now-defunct CBA, Germany, Finland, Cyprus, Israel and South Korea, will play for the expansion Tokyo Cinq Reves this season. The bj-league team made the announcement on Monday.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 7, 2012

Players take Greek offers

The Greek economy is in horrible shape. The eurozone has been on shaky ground for years. And, yes, the Greek League is barely surviving.
COMMENTARY
Sep 5, 2012

Paralympics a smash success

The general feeling after the London Olympics was that the excitement was over. The Paralympics would, it was feared, be a damp squib after the games. In fact the Paralympics have attracted large and enthusiastic audiences. The media have given the competitions almost as much coverage as they did to...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Aug 31, 2012

Preseason contests signal start of league's eighth season

After another offseason of major changes, the bj-league is entering year eight of its curious existence.
Japan Times
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 19, 2012

Taking a look back at the spectacular London Games

Before boarding the plane on Wednesday to return to Japan, here are items I scribbled down on paper from the Olympics extravaganza of the past few weeks, days that will always remain in my memory.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 14, 2012

U.S. holds off Spain in final

Between them, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James have scored more than 48,000 points in their NBA careers.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 12, 2012

South Korea reflects on successful Olympics

Not one of the largest nations competing in the Summer Olympics, South Korea had collected the fifth-most gold medals as of 9 p.m. on Friday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 10, 2012

'Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo (The Kirishima Thing)'

High schools are mercilessly hierarchical societies. At mine in rural Pennsylvania varsity basketball players occupied the summit. (Football players didn't because we didn't have a football team.) For a mere honor student to absent-mindedly sit in the "reserved" seat of one of these titans in the lunch...

Longform

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