The unification of the NBL, NBDL and bj-league to create the B. League represented a big step forward for men's pro basketball in Japan.

Another important step took place over the weekend with a pair of big events: the Kawasaki Brave Thunders represented the first-year circuit in the East Asia Club Championship, beating South Korea's Anyang KGC on Saturday night at Yoyogi National Gymnasium; Sunday's All-Star Game, witnessed by 9,567 spectators at the same venue and a national TV audience, was a crowd-pleasing, high-scoring affair, with B. Black trumping B. White 117-95.

Nine players reached double figures in points. Alvark Tokyo guard Diante Garrett, one of four ex-NBA players in the All-Star contest (joined by the B. Black's Yuta Tabuse of the Tochigi Brex and Nick Fazekas of the Kawasaki Brave Thunders and B. White big man Hilton Armstrong of the Chiba Jets) was the top scorer with 27 points for B. White.