Our client Seiya Ando, the first Japanese players for the National Basketball League Canada (NBLC), just came back to Japan last week from Canada after his first season as the professional basketball player. Believe it or not, he had already flew to Philippines on Monday night, and joined the team practice for Maralco Bolts under the Philippines Basketball Association (PBA). This young Japanese rising star never stops to achieve his goal; being a NBA player!
Image: Spin.ph
As some of you might know, the Game 7 of the NBLC Playoffs Final was cancelled unexpectedly. Seiya himself was so surprised at the ending of his first basketball season like that way. And he tweeted his strong feeling in Japanese that not playing Game 7 was such a frustrating experience. And this incident made him to think what the professional is. You can see what was happened before the game 7 from his Twitter (unfortunately, he tweeted in only Japanese).
ハリファックスは逃げたと判断する人もいるかと思います。でも逃げてはいません。戦う準備はしていました。今プロフェッショナルとはなんなのかをずっと考えています。そしてちゃんとGame7ができなかったことを本当に悔しく思っています。
— 安藤誓哉 Seiya Ando (@s_ando3) May 1, 2015
Aside from the shocking ending, Seiya had a great season. He debuted as the starting point guard at the Halifax Rainmen’s opening game, and he played 30 games out of 32 games in the regular season and all games in the Playoffs as the starting line-up. His contribution of 10.2 points per game, 3.9 assists per game, and 3.2 rebounds per game led the Rainmen to win the division championship and inspired the team to play at the Playoffs Finals. His career high record of 27 points were made in the Game 6 of the Finals. It showed that how he can play well at the important situations. Hard working always paid off, and Seiya was selected as the All-Rookie for the 2014-15 season.
Some of you might think like “Why Philippines?” or “Why this time?”.
Actually, PBA has a long history, and it is the second oldest continuously existing professional basketball league in the world after the NBA. Games are broadcasted world wide, and more than 52K fans attended at the Philippines Arena for the opening game in Oct, 2014. Basketball is so huge in Philippines as you can see now.
Also, PBA has a unique season format. They have three different conferences in a year; Philippine Cup (Oct-Feb), Commissioner’s Cup (Feb-May), and Governors’ Cup (May-Aug). Philippine Cup is played by Filipinos only, and import players are allowed in the other 2 conferences. In April, PBA announced that each team can hire one Asian import player who is no taller than 6’3 (= 190.5cm) in the Governors’ Cup, and scouts were looking for good asian players. Seiya Ando’s performance in Canada caught Bolts’ scout eye, and made him decide to hire him as the replacement for Iranian guard, Benny Koochoie.
Seiya is excited about playing in PBA. He knows the PBA is the great league, and he is looking forward to play surrounded by the exciting fans there. Also, he is taking every single chance to develop his professional career to enter the NBA which is his ultimate goal. As Spin.ph reported, Seiya has already impressed Bolts coaches by his plays at his first team practice.
Because of the issue at the NBLC, Seiya and us, as his agent, still have a couple of things to be done to let him play his first game at the PBA scheduled on Wednesday. We will work hard together, and make him play on Wednesday. We are looking forward to see he will hustle again in Philippines!!
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