Phoenix Suns point guard Yuta Tabuse will be named to the list of candidates for the men's basketball national team next year, Japan head coach Zeljko Pavlicevic said Wednesday.
The Croatian, who took charge of Japan in February 2003, said that he thinks highly of Tabuse, the first Japanese to play in the NBA, and plans to call him up to next year's national team training camp.
Pavlicevic added Tabuse would need to spend a certain period of time at camp in order to make the national team.
Pavlicevic also expressed interest in Mitsubishi Electric Melco Dolphins forward Walter Brown Matsushima, a U.S.-born player who has acquired Japanese citizenship.