It shouldn't be a big shock that the Niigata Albirex BB have made a sizzling start under fiery bench boss Kazuo Nakamura, whose alleged retirement lasted one season.
Nakamura, who turns 75 next month, has transformed the East-leading Albirex (9-1) into the league's highest-scoring team (87.7 points per game). They have walloped their foes by 226 points to date.
From 2008-11, Nakamura's Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix team went 36-16, 41-11, 40-6 in the regular season in succession and captured back-to-back titles in the last two years. His Akita Northern Happinets squad had more mixed success, going 28-24 in 2011-12 in his first campaign at the helm of his hometown team, 26-26 in 2012-13 and 40-12 and a championship runnerup finish in 2013-14, a feat matched by Nakamura's successor, Makoto Hasegawa last spring. (Nakamura took his team to the playoffs in all six of those seasons.)
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.