A Catch-Up With Japan's Pro Basketball-The B.League

With the J-League competition being over, we turn our sights to Japan's third favorite sport- basketball. Self-proclaimed as the "Second largest league, after the NBA," one can't help but become intrigued by the high self- confidence of this league. The B.League is only in its sixth year of operation, but the amount of growth and local support has been immense! Every game you attend, you'll notice that the arenas and gymnasiums are constantly packed to almost maximum capacity. I wont lie, it's a great atmosphere! The crowd cheering. the giveaways, the food and the team merch on sale- make the experience that much more valuable. A brief history on professional basketball in Japan- is that there were two separate entities known as the Japan Basketball Association(JBA), and the Basketball Japan(BJ) League. On September 16th, 2016, the two basketball entities merged and the B.League was formed. The League is FIBA affiliated, meaning that it adheres to all rules and regulations that are set forth by the Switzerland based- FIBA federation.

The current league champions are the Utsonomiya Brex team, and this is actually their second time being crowned - champs. The only other team that has won the B.League 1 Championship more than once- is Alvark Tokyo. Similar to the J-League football competition structure, the pro basketball leagues are also divided into three divisions. The B1 competition has a total of 24 teams, the B2 division has only 14 teams and the B3 has 16 teams.

The B1 League 2022 season, is now in its thirteenth week and after watching some of the games, you can sense the urgency and intensity that some of these teams are bringing. They're hungry! Another contributing factor is that more foreign players are being allowed to enter the country, based on things starting to open up a bit, post pandemic. Teams are now able to beef up their rosters with quality American talent, as well as talent from other strong basketball playing nations. This isn't a biased statement, but there must be something special in the water in the Yokohama region, in relation to how well their pro sports teams perform. Yokohama based football teams already dominated professional soccer, and now it seems that their basketball team- the Yokohama B-Corsairs, aren't that far behind from possibly dominating pro basketball as well. Don't get me wrong, they aren't number one yet, but they're showing signs of a team that could do very well this season. They are currently ranked 13th out of 24 teams, so we will be following their progress quite closely, and who knows, I might be wrong about my predictions regarding their excellence. We'll see!

We've also seen a few stars emerge this season. The current Monthly MVP for the B.League is Perrin Bufford. The American former college athlete didn't attend a major basketball school. He went to Middle Tennessee, and then went undrafted in the NBA 2016 Draft. Bufford made the move to the Oceania/Asia region at the right time in his career. He has had a stint in Australia, and in 2020, moved to play in Japan for the Shimane Susanoo Magic. He is definitely one to watch this season!