NKBL (Japanese League)
| NKBL | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Commissioner | Kosuke Murakami (Tanuki) |
| Headquarters | Nishi-Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan |
| CEO | Noboru Tsunemori (Japanese Akita) |
The Nippon Kemono Basketball League (日本獣バスケットボールリーグ • Japan Furry Basketball League) or NKBL is Japan’s professional basketball league. Founded in 1983, it is one of the oldest professional basketball leagues in Asia and the top level of professional basketball in Japan.
History
The NKBL, while being younger than many of the other big leagues in the world, is one of the older and more well-established basketball leagues in Asia. Its roots trace back to post-war American influence in Japan, brought by expatriates and especially by military personnel. During the height of the Vietnam War, with quite a number of US military personnel stationed in and near Japan, Japanese citizens and especially youth got exposed to the FBA and its big players. This caused many youth to start looking at basketball a lot more seriously than they had been previously. As clubs and teams started cropping up at institutions of learning all over Japan throughout the 1970’s, there became more demand for a league within Japan.
At first, there was quite a bit of resistance to the formation of the NKBL. Baseball had dominated as Japan’s most popular national sport. Some in the sports community did not like the idea of another major sports league potentially taking away the attention from the baseball league. However, while there were many young supporters of baseball, there were just as many who were clamoring for a basketball league. It was from these young basketball players, especially in high school and college, who lobbied for the formation of a league. They saw their American counterparts getting a shot at playing in a pro league and wanted something like that in their own country. Eventually toward the late 70’s, this movement began to get a lot more traction and even attention from sports media.
However, it was not until the early 80's that this movement finally achieved its goal. The public desire for a basketball league finally reached a point to where no one could deny that it would make good business sense to start a national basketball league. It was in 1983 that the NKBL was finally formed, with Saburo Maeda as the first commissioner of the league. In the beginning there were ten of the current twelve teams, a smaller number to start with in order to make it more manageable. Much like the FBA, during the 1970's and 1980's the league had to deal with predator dominance within the league. Members of prey species found it just as hard to enter the NKBL as in the FBA. But as their American counterparts began lobbying for this to change, the NKBL began to face similar changes.
Now, the NKBL is dealing with much different issues than predator/prey equality. Unlike the FBA and the EFBL, the NKBL has a much lower number of female players within a supposedly ‘open co-ed' league. This is due to traditional Japanese social values encouraging sports participation far more among men than women as it is a traditionally ‘masculine’ profession. Because of this, the NKBL has come under some scrutiny from these other international leagues. The current commissioner of the league, Kosuke Murakami, has been attempting to lobby for encouraging more participation by women but it has met limited success. In addition, again due to traditional values, the NKBL has also been accused of not providing an adequately open environment for LGBT players, who many believe are in the league but must remain closeted. Again, the current commissioner lobbies for change but the climate of the sport remains hard to move. The Matsuyama Warriors and the Sendai Comets are the two most recent additions to the league in the early 2000s and the league has been in its current configuration for over a decade.
Teams
Red Division
- Sendai Comets
- Kyoto Crowns
- Tokyo Skyline
- Sapporo Brewers
- Yokohama Sailors
- Nagoya Quantums
White Division
- Hiroshima Motors
- Kobe Wranglers
- Osaka Gold-Stars
- Matsuyama Warriors
- Fukuoka Storm
- Naha Wave Fighters