This has both good and bad points.
The good thing is that partnerships with Asian markets pay off. Ultimately, it's money.
The bad thing, to put it bluntly, is the league level. To be honest, partnerships with Asian markets do not help Australian players grow and level up. It is similar to how our participation in the Asian qualifiers or the Asia Cup in international competitions does not help the Olympics and World Cup at all.

Could this be a good thing in the long run? It's a difficult problem.

Anything that promotes basketball in both countries is good imo.

Poor consolidation prize in terms of Asian market you'd want an association with.

On a positive note at least the Japanese renamed their league from BJ League to B.

consolation*

Seems like a wank. Is the NBL getting paid good coin for this? Otherwise I don't see the point.

Japanese teams playing in our Blitz - they'll get murdered. Meh.

"The MoU also contemplates the NBL and B.LEAGUE partnering to explore the viability of a team from Japan participating in the NBL" - yeah won't happen.

- Involvement of BLG referees and officials in the NBL pre-season
- BLG teams participating in community events, activations, and coaching clinics
- Joint activations between the Leagues
- Junior basketball clubs from Australia and Japan participating in tournaments held in each country
**SO MUCH WOW**

It's window dressing so LK can tick off the 'Asia' box even though it wasn't the market they wanted.

Is there an MOU with teams in Puerto Rico given how many NBL guys play there in the off season?

Yes looks like window dressing to tick the Asian alliance box and drive up the value of the NBL for when it's sold.

I like this. Helps Japanese basketball more than Australia obviously, but improving the sport in the region helps us in the long run.

I dont know alot about the B League besides the fact that it does attract some good Aussie Talent. How does it compare to the NBL talent wise? Reading the comments above theres a big difference?

I think the average BLeague salary is higher than that of the NBL so it potentially gives our local players other opportunities from this exposure (to get scouted or transfer if they want to).There can be 3 foreign players in a BLeague team. Or if not, it may bring up the NBL average pay?

The majority of Japanese players get less than those at the end of benches in the nbl.
The imports (mainly 4s and 5s) along with the best Japanese players get big dollars, more than the best nbl players.
The plan is to have lots n lots of teams across multiple divisions developing lots of Japanese 1-2-3 s on the cheap and try to naturalise the best 4-5 imports.
Since the b league began they have naturalised about 10 foreigners in the 4-5 spots.

Kay was on 500k a year US net if I recall correctly. Mooney played one year in nbl and hasn't left the Japanese league since.

I watched a handful of B League games last season because it was (maybe still is?) free streaming. Re: the overall quality of the players, based on what I saw a lot of rotation guys would struggle to play NBL1. The import talent is high and the best Japanese players compete, but there's a long way to go with bringing the quality of the overall league upwards, which is why I think this deal is a good idea in the long-run if both sides actively develop it going forward.

Exposure is exposure and that's what the NBL is driving at. I don't think it's a bad deal but its not going to be a big game changer.

Not a massive game changer but having more development in Japan grows the game.

In honesty if the costs adds up, would it be good to have one Japanese team in the NBL. If they stacked that Japanese team with the best players with 3 good imports, could they compete?

Bring the Japanese national team to the blitz?

"B" League/team suggests to my mind a second-tier comp (not the "A" teams). Is "B" league the second or top level in Japan?

Are we inviting the NBL1 equivalent to our NBL line-up?

Serious question from me.

'B' in B-League stands for basketball. There is also a banana theme, with the first division called B1 and the second div B2.

Thanks A'mouse. From your answer....."B" is as good as it gets. Thanks again.