NEWSWORTHY
Debora Zoli blazing a trail for female sports agents with ability, charisma
Building relationships is a vital part of being a successful pro sports agent. Sustaining relationships is equally important, but it's an often trickier task in the cutthroat world of pro basketball. After all, agents come and go in this ultra-competitive business, and maintaining trust and ...
Donte' Hill hoping to return Iwate to respectability in second half of season
In the rapidly changing Japan pro basketball landscape, the Iwate Big Bulls' run to the bj-league Final Four in 2015 is, well, ancient history. The team has experienced its share of ups and downs since then, when Dai Oketani completed his distinguished three-year run as ...
Star Burns a man without a team
Sixth man extraordinaire Draelon Burns is a man without a team. The DePaul University alum parted ways with the Ryukyu Golden Kings after his contract expired following the team's fourth title-winning season ended in May by beating the Toyama Grouses 86-7. Now, just weeks away from ...
Japanese basketball hurt by Robots debacle
The NBL, one of the two top men's basketball leagues in Japan, has endured a chaotic 2014-15 campaign, and the disarray reached its nadir with the management change of the Tsukuba Robots. It came out of the blue for the fans. Just a week into ...
11 players refuse to sign new contracts with Tsukuba Robots, become free agents
A total of 11 Japanese players on the Tsukuba Robots have been placed on the NBL's free agency list after they didn't sign new contracts with the Eastern Conference club's new management company, the league announced on Monday. Among the 11 are Yusuke Okada, Japan ...
Off-court distractions create additional challenges for Tsukuba Robots
Usually, the first few weeks of any sports league's season should be happy, exciting times as both the teams and fans had eagerly anticipated its arrival. But that doesn't seem to be the case for this year's National Basketball League. On Oct. 18, the men's hoop ...
New challenges for Takeuchi, Okada
Because of the disparity in the talent pool, the National Basketball League ended up with enormous gaps between the elite teams and weaker teams during its inaugural 2013-14 season. But Year Two may be a little different. Since the offseason officially began at the end ...
Coach Hill brings patience, positivity to Tsukuba Robots
Asked what brought him over to Japan to take a head coaching job, Donte' Hill assertively answered with one word: basketball. Hill, 35, said that he considered Japanese basketball offered a great opportunity to take its game to the next level with the launch of ...
