As the first J. League chairman, Saburo Kawabuchi demonstrated strong leadership and helped its successful launch as a professional league more than two decades ago.
Sometimes, his reign was described as a dictatorship.
But now, though, Japanese basketball probably needs a powerful figure like him to fix this now-or-never situation after the Japan Basketball Association was suspended by FIBA, the sport's global governing body, last fall.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.