The ongoing debate about how to improve Japan's basketball, from the elementary school level to the professional ranks, has produced a number of different viewpoints. The one thing that most people agree on is that the current approach isn't working to create a powerful national team and a number of world-class players for the future.
In response to Wednesday's Daily Yomiuri column, featuring comments from JBA official Hideaki Usui, former JBL2 and bj-league player Isaac Sojourner offered his insights on Japanese hoops and why the status quo is a major problem.
"The JBA official in my opinion is totally off his rocker," Sojourner said. "There are more foreigners on any, and all bj-league rosters and the (roughly) 20 NBA D-League players currently playing for the teams all over the league. (NBA vets like) Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and David Benoit and others like Jeff Newton, Lynn Washington as well as countless others throughout the years, who have experience from many years played back home at great high schools, prep schools, junior colleges, big-name universities and big-time pro leagues as well. Which right there blows the doors off any and all of these universities here and any other (Japanese) school for that matter.