Enduring the stress of a season with a number of off-court issues and distractions, Tokyo Apache guard Cohey Aoki is playing with mixed emotions.
The 29-year-old, one of only a handful of players still around from last season's championship runnerup team, admitted during a recent interview that he and his team went through tough times earlier the season.
Starting off, the Apache's uncertain status for this season occurred because Exstar Entertainment took over the club's management duties literally only days before the 2009-10 campaign tipped off. What's more, the team entered the season with a new coach (Motofumi Aoki) and a slew of new players. Simply put, there was no time to develop team unity or establish a natural pecking order.