Yao Ming on Japanese Basketball: Very Strong in Asia, They Focus on Lethal Shooting Rather Than Being All-Round

Recently, Yao Ming discussed Japanese basketball during an event.

Q: These athletes from Japan may not differ much from Chinese players in terms of physical attributes, but in recent years, Japan has produced many strong guards, and their competitive level has improved rapidly. What aspects of their training could be insightful for us?

Yao Ming: I might not be able to answer this question because I haven’t closely followed Japanese training practices. However, I can observe their performance on the court and speculate about what they might be doing. What they are doing aligns with several logical principles. Firstly, while Japan has become very strong in Asia, it is not yet at that level globally. Therefore, when aiming at the world stage, they position themselves as underdogs challenging their opponents. I remember an old basketball sage once said that when you are an underdog trying to break through, you don’t need to think about how to defend; instead, you should focus on leveraging your strongest assets. What are you best at? This ties into a document from the Japanese Basketball Association that I obtained through certain channels recently. It mentioned their pursuit of shooting three-pointers with over 40% accuracy. This reflects a mindset where they do not strive for being all-round, but rather for a lethal specialty. As for specific training methods, I am indeed unaware, but their approach does reveal some new ideas.