Two days after the Ryukyu Golden Kings captured the bj-league title in the team's second season, general manager Tatsuro Kimura reflected on the significance of this achievement.
"What a wonderful experience it is to build a franchise from scratch and go all the way to the top of the league," Kimura told The Japan Times on Tuesday. "Not many people can experience (this) and I am fortunate to have this kind of opportunity."
The Golden Kings had a 10-34 record in their first season. In the 2008-09 season, they went 41-11 in the regular season, beat the Rizing Fukuoka in the first round of the playoffs and then overcame a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter of the Western Conference final on Saturday, getting a 50-point effort from regular season- and playoff-MVP Jeff Newton to knock off the three-time defending champion Osaka Evessa, his former team. And they capped a storybook season by defeating the Tokyo Apache in Sunday's championship game.