The Japanese striker took the initiative to give up the NBA: join Asia's No. 1 League to earn a high salary and follow Yi Jianlian
Japanese forward Yuta Watanabe personally announced that he would give up his player option for next season and voluntarily give up playing in the NBA, and Yuta Watanabe will join the Japanese B-League next season.
In his solo live broadcast, Watanabe said that he wanted to enjoy basketball more purely, and he suffered too much in his 20s, and he wanted to make up for his teenage years in his 30s. Originally, Yuta Watanabe and the Grizzlies had a one-year player option worth $2.6 million to the contract, but he chose to give it up.
Yuta Watanabe is the only Asian yellow athlete in the current NBA, who has played in the NBA for 6 years, and has returned to the Grizzlies this season with the Grizzlies, Raptors, Nets, Suns. The best year of stats was in the '22-23 season, when Yuta Watanabe played for the Nets, averaging 5.6 points and 2.4 rebounds per game while shooting 44.4% from three-point range.
Unlike when he just graduated in 2018, he was eager to pursue his dreams, and now Yuta Watanabe is 29 years old, he has a family, and he is no longer so single-minded when considering his career, and at the same time, Yuta Watanabe also wants to enjoy basketball more purely, go to a platform with lower strength than the NBA to gain more playing time, and higher team status and treatment, these can also be things that players are pursuing.
In terms of strength, Yuta Watanabe's return to the Japanese B League has a chance to become a big killer, after all, he is the only pure yellow man in the Japanese men's basketball team who has entered the NBA. The Japanese B League will surpass the CBA after the 2023 World Cup and become the first league in Asia, and the overall salary has been significantly improved, at present, the first local salary in the Japanese B League is Kawamura Yuki, with an annual salary of about 5 million yuan, considering the level of Yuta Watanabe's NBA level, he has the opportunity to win a contract of more than 10 million yuan, and any Japanese B League to get Yuta Watanabe is equivalent to getting a local player at the level of foreign aid, and the strength will be significantly improved.
On the other hand, Yuta Watanabe's choice to return to the Japanese B-League is also related to the preparation for the Paris Olympics, with less than 100 days to go until the Paris Olympics, Watanabe needs more time to train with his teammates in the Japanese national team, and their goal is to win at the Olympics with the biggest goal of reaching the last eight.
The current Yuta Watanabe is like Yi Jianlian in the past, the UAE signed with the Lakers after the 2016 Rio Olympics, but after the preseason, the UAE chose to terminate the contract, and then returned to the CBA to play, Yi Jianlian was also 29 years old at the time, he didn't want to waste time on the NBA bench, and at the age of 29, he wanted to get playing time and better team status treatment, and didn't want to be a tail.
Yuta Watanabe is inspirational enough, he was originally just an NBA draft pick, started in the NBA Summer League, then the NBA Development League, and finally became an NBA official player through unremitting efforts, and also played in the NBA for as many as 6 seasons, this achievement is second only to Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi, and Yi Jianlian in the history of Asian basketball.
And where is the "Yuta Watanabe" who belongs to Chinese basketball?