A great Kings Basketball season comes to an end!
Posted on May 25, 2010 6:52 AMTo the great fans of Okinawa Basketball:
Coming into this season we had very high expectations as the defending Champs of the BJ League. New season additions of Tsubasa and George gave us two important pieces we needed to return to the playoffs and eventually give the Team a chance win the whole thing, the BJ League Championship.
During the season we were met with much adversity from early season injuries of Shige and Jeff and a mid to late season pickup of new players who had to learn the Kings basketball system in a very short time to keep our season moving along. We overcame a lot of the adversity by bringing in quality seasoned players in Obuchi and Kevin to help fill these voids. These guys along with the other players already in place who stepped up their game to a whole new level to try to fill the shoes of two of the best players not only on our Team but in the BJ League. Most Teams could not have survived these losses and continued at the level we did. Most of the season we maintained 1st but eventually dropping to 2nd near the latter part of the season in the West and almost were able to pull off the unimagineable of winning the West but came up one game short.
By maintaining the 2nd spot in the West we were able to fulfill one of our Important Team goals of the 09/10 season of bringing back the Playoffs to Okinawa and faced Fukuoka in the 1st round in which we played a very competitive series before eventually taking them out.
Heading into the Final Four this past weekend we had prepared as a Team to face Osaka and knew this would be a very physical match. We even compared this to going to war! The game was just that and we loss the battle as we could not execute on either side of the ball and it showed as the final result.
The 3rd place game gave us a chance to show the people of Okinawa and our great following of fans that we could still play this game with pride which I felt was more important to win than if we had been playing for the Championship. We played and won this game for Okinawa!
As a conclusion to the season we could not fulfill our ultimate goal but I felt we made great strides in showing the rest of Japan and the BJ League that the Ryukyu Golden Kings will be back to fight and challenge next season.
I cannot say enough about how much your effort makes it easier for us as Coaches and players to stay motivated to keep up the fight no matter if we were winning by 5 or down by 20, you were always there. So many fans traveled with us all season, at home, on the road and to the BJ League final four. Everytime I would hear you all cheer "go, go Kings!" it would make me so proud to be a part of such a great family of the Kings Basketball. Keep up the great support and you can garuantee that we will be back to the playoffs next season and will push for the ultimate goal of competing for the BJ League crown again in the 10/11 season.
With much love for all,
Coach Keith
"Go Kings"