The Akita Northern Happinets fired coach Bob Pierce on Monday night, clearing the path for a possible titanic shift in the bj-league's coaching landscape.
"I just heard from a Japanese coach that there's a rumor going around that (Kazuo) Nakamura will leave Hamamatsu and return to Akita," Pierce told The Japan Times.
Nakamura, a 70-year-old Akita native, has led the defending champion Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix (40-6 in the regular season) to three consecutive Eastern Conference regular-season titles and a trip to the Final Four this weekend. In a decades-long career that included time in the JBL, the highly decorated bench boss also coached at Akita Keizai University (now called North Asia University) from 1995-97.