In winning three games at the recent FIBA Basketball World Cup and qualifying for the Olympics as a non-host for the first time since the 1976 Montreal Games, the Japanese men's national team overcame a history of underachievement tied to the sport's mismanagement in the country.
Asian basketball, let alone the rest of the world, had been too high a hurdle for Japan's men, who finished a record-low 10th at the 2009 continental championships, before sweeping reforms to the sport led to the establishment of the B. League in 2016.
Governing body FIBA had banned Japan from men's and women's international competition in 2014 after the Japan Basketball Association failed to meet an ultimatum to merge the country's two feuding men's leagues, one fully professional, and the other involving corporate teams.