Unlike for other players, the start of the 2016-17 Women's Japan Basketball League season didn't necessarily represent a fresh start for Jx-Eneos Sunflowers star player Ramu Tokashiki.
The 25-year-old forward/center has basically been on the court for nearly two entire years, having also played for the Japan women's national team and the WNBA's Seattle Storm. So her body has taken a beating and she's built up a lot of fatigue.
Tokashiki wrapped up her duties with the Storm on Sept. 21, when the team was eliminated from the playoffs by the Atlanta Dream. Her first game for the Sunflowers this season was on Oct. 7, against the Fujitsu Red Wave. In August, she played in five games for the national team at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where Japan fell to the United States in the quarterfinals.