Damian Johnson signs with Oita Heat Devils of Japan’s BJ-League

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Come on now Bleed; I posted that thread, and I don't think the "program" is crumbling...just have some concerns. I'm still optimistic about this year and our future as a team.

Back on topic, congrats to DJ for finding a squad to land with...wish him all the best.
 


DJ... could he compete for defensive POY in the... BJ-League? (One of FOT's favorite movies has the same name)

But, there is some.. stiff.. competition - last year's defensive POY is someone we are familiar with... Antoine Broxsie.
 

Now if that Gopherholer with the name Dirk Diggler decides to post on this thread......
 



I'm glad that Damian is gonna be playing pro ball, but I think he could have done far better than this. I used to live in Japan and went to an Oita Heat Devils game and it was god awful. It was like watching small DII college ball. They played in a gym that a crappy high school would have.

One positive is that Damian will get plenty of playing time as they limit the number of foreign players that can be on each team, so he is bound to be one of the best on the team.

Anyway, best of luck to him!
 


ShowinGoldyLove said:
Come on now Bleed; I posted that thread, and I don't think the "program" is crumbling...just have some concerns. I'm still optimistic about this year and our future as a team.

Back on topic, congrats to DJ for finding a squad to land with...wish him all the best.
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The Gopher program was in shambles in 2007. It can't crumble until it is rebuilt. Not there yet.
 



mchiller said:
I'm glad that Damian is gonna be playing pro ball, but I think he could have done far better than this. I used to live in Japan and went to an Oita Heat Devils game and it was god awful. It was like watching small DII college ball. They played in a gym that a crappy high school would have.

One positive is that Damian will get plenty of playing time as they limit the number of foreign players that can be on each team, so he is bound to be one of the best on the team.

Anyway, best of luck to him!
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How long ago was this? The BJ League has slowly been improving, but still has a long ways to go, and will likely remain the second best league in Japan as long as the JBL is paying their import players 20-30k a month. Typically, the American/import players get paid between 5-10k a month in the BJ League, and they are allowed 4 import players per team. Some of the teams have really increased their budgets though, including the Tokyo Apache, who added former NBA Coach Bob Hill as their Head Coach. This is also the team Jeremy Tyler signed with.

Totally off topic, but would also like to add this was a good move for Jeremy Tyler despite the low level of competition, because Bob Hill is an excellent big man coach who has privately trained several of the top bigs in the NBA draft process int he past few years.
 

It was two years ago. I believe Kobe Bryant's dad was coaching the Tokyo Apache over there at that time too. I think the BJ League is the top league in Japan, at least according to what I have read, but you could be right that the other league pays the players more.
 

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After 4 games DJ is averaging 15.8 ppg and second in minutes played.

http://www.asia-basket.com/team.asp?Cntry=Japan&Team=7208&Page=3

Good for him.

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