Yuta Tabuse, waived after training camp last year by the Denver Nuggets, has signed with the Phoenix Suns and will make another bid to be Japan's first player in the NBA: Tabuse set for Japanese NBA breakthrough. Here's the official Yuta Tabuse Press Conference Transcript.
I should add that while Tabuse might be the NBA's first player from Japan, he is not the first basketball player of Japanese descent. That distinction belongs to Wataru "Wat" Misaka. In 1947, the New York Knicks drafted Misaka, the first NBA player of Asian descent, in the first round.
Misaka, a 5-7 guard, appeared in three games and scored seven points for the 1947-48 Knicks before he was cut for reasons never made clear to him. Perhaps America wasn't quite ready for an Asian baller. Nevertheless, he was truly a pioneer who broke the sports color barrier. Read some more here: "Wat" A Player
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