As their season came to an end having missed a playoff berth on Sunday, Levanga Hokkaido's Spanish bench boss Juan Manuel Hurtado Perez poured out his thoughts in an almost furious fashion.

Although Perez did not necessarily identify it as something that cost the Levanga a place in the postseason, the coach said that his team did not get enough respect in the NBL this season.

For example, in their 63-62 victory over the Hitachi Sunrockers on Sunday, the Levanga earned just four free throws in the entire 40 minutes, two of which came with less than a second remaining in the game.

To keep their playoff hopes intact, Hokkaido put up a gutsy, physical fight. The Sunrockers, on the contrary, made 24 shots from the charity stripe.

"It was very incredible," Perez said after the game. "It was the first time in my career we had only two free throws during the first 39 minutes and 59 seconds."

Also, in the same game, the Levanga were forced to play without their core big man Jameel Watkins due to an eye injury he suffered during the previous day's contest. Apparently, the former Georgetown player got an elbow in the eye, and the foul was on him.

"Watkins, an All-Star of the NBL, didn't get the respect of the refs, never," Perez said. "Every player can hit Jameel Watkins, but we are not going to get fouls. But we cannot touch other players. That, to me, is a big surprise."

Perez felt that his Levanga team did not earn as many foul calls in April as they did in the other months of the season.

Perez also spoke on behalf of his team's star Japanese players, Takehiko Orimo and Ryota Sakurai, both of whom have played for the national team. The head coach didn't think that the pair, who, according to him, have done so much for the national team, earned as much reverence as other top compatriot players.

"I don't feel that they have the same respect that Yuta Tabuse, (Joji) Takeuchi, the other (Kosuke) Takeuchi, (Takuya) Kawamura, I don't feel they have the same respect," said Perez, who previously served as head coach for Caceres 2016 of the Spanish league from 2008-10.

Orimo, who is also Levanga's president, spoke in a much more composed tone than Perez but agreed with the Spaniard that the team did not get the respect it deserved.

"The referees were blowing their whistles like, 'Your Hokkaido team's losing anyway,' " Orimo, 43, said. "I guess it's important for us to keep (winning so we can change that)."

Perez expressed his honest, straightforward opinions not only regarding his own team, but overall on Japanese basketball. He insisted that Japanese basketball has to alter its structure, such as having two top leagues in the NBL and bj-league and having both pro teams and corporate teams in the same NBL.

The Japan Basketball Association recently announced that it would form a new professional league in 2016, possibly combining the NBL and bj-league. But Perez, like many others, doesn't have high expectations.

"I think that it's going to be very difficult," he said. "But if they have it, that's very important because you need professional basketball players, you need different environments. Because right now, the big companies have the control. You cannot compete against them. It's impossible."

Perez said that Japan is economically qualified to have a better league but that it needs to learn how to make it function more effectively.

"They need to go overseas to see how they are working," he said.