Despite the fact that the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix rely on Michael Gardener to carry the offense, coach Kazuo Nakamura's team had multiple scoring options this season, including a 236-cm center named Sun Ming Ming, who can dunk without jumping, and Marcus Morrison, who averaged 17.8 points per game.
The Phoenix won the Eastern Conference's regular-season crown with a 36-16 record and averaged a league-high 90.7 points per game in their first bj-league campaign.
Tokyo Apache coach Joe Bryant bestowed upon Gardener a nickname that is a worthy compliment. Bryant called him a "poor man's Allen Iverson."