In recent years, the NBA has seen excitement of having more and more Asian players. Especially from Japan, where basketball is a very popular sport; a manga based Slam Dunk animated film made a massive box office hit, basketball betting is one of the most popular categories in sports bookmakers, and when NBA preseason games tours to Japan, a huge crowd of people flock to matches.
Since Yuta Tabuse signed with the Phoenix Suns and became the first Japanese player to make the opening roster of the NBA in 2004, several Japanese players who have played in the games of NBA have been a strong inspiration to basketball players in their home countries.