“By 2030, the B League will produce five NBA players.”
This is a goal set by the B League, Japan’s top basketball league, in July 2023. Ahead of the start of “B.PREMIER” due to league reorganization, management indicators such as the number of clubs, number of visitors, and business scale are lined up, but this one thing is different.
Normally, the exodus of star players to overseas leagues is a cause for concern as it leads to the “hollowing out” of domestic leagues. If you look at the history of professional baseball (NPB) and the J.League, which have tried to limit losses through posting systems and transfer fees, the B.League’s stance can be said to be unusual.
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However, the B.League dared to make producing NBA players an official goal of the league. And it’s not just a slogan. Exactly one year ago, on January 18, 2025, they announced that they had entered into a strategic partnership with the NBA. One of the pillars of the plan is to “develop elite players,” and “create opportunities for B League clubs and players to participate in NBA and NBA G League events.” In response to this, after the season, a selection team, “B.LEAGUE UNITED”, was formed by recruiting players who wanted to challenge overseas. After playing against Australia’s NBL selection in Gunma, they played a practice match against an NBA Summer League team in Las Vegas. They also invited a G League team under the NBA to Japan and created an opportunity to play against a B League team.
Naoya Okamoto, head of the international business group who spearheaded the league’s creation of B.League United and also handles negotiations with overseas teams, says:
“B.League United was created to give players an opportunity to play at this level, as the B.League environment has improved and it is rare for (players) to go overseas.”
Issues such as not being able to generate enough revenue to cover B.League United’s expenses and the inability of national team-level players to participate in B.League United because of their national team activities were exposed, but it is important that they took action to make this a reality.
Okamoto looked back on the year since he started taking action as follows.
“In terms of what I accomplished in the past year, it was simply making the game happen.It was the first time for the B League to invite a strong team from overseas to play, and it was also the first time we had brought them to the NBA.Lastly, it was also the first time they invited players from the G League. Naturally, things like this involve a lot of people and money, a lot of work, and contracts, but I think the biggest benefit was that we were able to successfully complete three projects without any incidents.
