Players' Adjustment from Overseas to U.S. Sports

Last week, Jon Weinbach of The Wall Street Journal wrote an article called "From Japan, With Mixed Results". The article describes the hurdles an overseas player must get past in order to succeed. Weinbach also talks about the adjustments an athlete must make. Although this article is written about baseball, it certainly can apply to basketball and the NBA.

Below is an excerpt from this article:

Unlike American players, who are mostly selected through the amateur draft, or prospects from Latin America, who often sign contracts with ball clubs as teenagers, most Japanese players are brought over as seasoned stars with long track records of success in the Japanese leagues, which are just below the major leagues in quality. The 14 Japanese imports on big-league rosters this year were 27 years old, on average, when they made their debuts.

According to coaches, team executives, scouts and Japanese players, the key to success in North America isn't just how well a player performed in Japan or whether he can conquer homesickness. It's the ability to recognize subtle differences in the way baseball is played here, and the willingness to make small adjustments to account for them -- even if it means breaking some deeply ingrained habits.

Those who do, like Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners -- who has led the American League in hits three times -- can become larger-than-life stars. Those who don't can end up as brief footnotes. Once considered the best third baseman in Japan, Norihiro Nakamura went cold at the plate for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005 and lasted all of 17 games.

"It's a leap of faith," says Andrew Friedman, the general manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who recently acquired Japanese third baseman Akinori Iwamura. While team officials always try to evaluate the risks before signing a Japanese player, he says, they are well aware of the uneven track record. "Every player is a little different."

The entire article can be found by going to:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118549191926479608.html