The Toshiba Brave Thunders announced the retirements of two of their veteran players, guard Takuya Kita and forward Yuki Orihara, on Friday. Kita, the 35-year-old former Japan national, joined the Kawasaki-based team in 1995. He was chosen for the JBL's first team five times, selected the regular-season MVP for 1998-99 and led his team to JBL championships in the 1998-99 and 2004-05 campaigns. Toshiba also announced that Mitsunori Kamata stepped down as head coach and Teruaki Tanaka, who has been an assistant coach for the team since 2004, will replace him.
