Baseball and soccer are well-established professional sports in Japan. And now it's time for the bj-league, Japan's first professional basketball league, to take necessary steps to earn its place as an established, respected league.
What follows are suggestions and a critical analysis of the fourth-year league to date.
For starters, three ex-NBA players — Joe Bryant, David Benoit and John Neumann — are head coaches in the bj-league. That's 25 percent of the league's head coaches, folks. An impressive figure, indeed, but they aren't widely known among Japan's sports fans.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.