The Toshiba Brave Thunders needed to fill an assistant coaching vacancy after last season, so his name came up. And Brian Rowsom seemed to be a good fit because he used to play for the team and had coaching experience.

The Toshiba staff met with him by accident at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas the year before, and the former NBA player's presence was in the back of their minds after that.

But head coach Takuya Kita and the club were a little hesitant to offer an assistant coaching job to the American, because he had been a head coach for other teams, including clubs in Qatar, and they weren't so confident that he would like to work under somebody else.