Four bj-league expansion teams took small steps in laying the foundation for their inaugural 2011-12 season on Thursday as the league's annual draft was held in Tokyo.
All told, 27 players were selected in the expansion, rookie and development drafts.
The Iwate Big Bulls made ex-JBL and Tokyo Apache forward Reina Itakura the No. 1 pick in the expansion draft. The Tokyo native appeared in 31 games (296 total minutes) for the Apache in 2010-11, his second season with the club. Itakura, 30, attended Hosei University before moving on to the JBL.