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.