To accurately describe what's been going on for several years now in this nation's pro hoop scene, I submit the following analogy:

The Japan Basketball League and the bj-league have been traveling in the same direction on identical trains on parallel tracks . . . with no destination in site.

In their own ways, both leagues have felt they know what's best for the future of basketball in this country, while at the same time the Japan Basketball Association has had neither the will nor the skill to make the sport relevant to the masses. The JBA, the sport's governing body here, has also been ill-equipped to deal with the equally vital challenge of how to make the men's national team capable of qualifying for world championships and the Summer Olympics, as Hoop Scoop has detailed extensively in the past.