In August 2022, NBA completely entered the long grass period, but Gibbon Tefu still did not leave basketball. He took advantage of the holiday to go back to Japan and came to Okinawa, his hometown in Ryouta Miyagi.
In the past 10 years, he visited Ryukyu Kingking team six times. This is a subordinate team of Japan’s B league. Gibbon and its coach barrel Valley have made great efforts and put forward many valuable suggestions for the construction of this team. The Japanese basketball media also solemnly welcomed and thanked Gibbon and said: “All members of the Kingking team will cheer for the New York Knicks led by coach Gibbon in Okinawa!”
This year is the 11th year for Gibbon to enter the NBA. On the far side of the Pacific Ocean, people call him days, because “Daisuke” is too difficult for Americans to pronounce, so he simply gave himself the name “Dice” which sounded loud. The 42-year-old is the only Japanese coach in NBA. He has been the head coach of the Knicks summer league for three consecutive years and is accumulating coaching experience at an amazing speed.
While many people are still waiting for the next Asian face to really set foot on NBA, Gibbon, who has worked silently in American basketball for more than 20 years, may be the one who is most likely to create a new history.
Jiben was born in Osaka Fudong Ōsaka, which is famous for its rugby culture. However, Gibbon loved basketball since he was young. He decided to move to the United States to pursue his dream of basketball when he was in college. He transferred from the University of Commerce to a Community Technical College in New Hampshire. After studying, he also played NCAA level 3 league there, became the captain. After finishing his studies, he successfully entered Ford Hanu University, which was a first-class league, majoring in pedagogy, and also served as the basketball manager of the university.
He knew that his talent level would never be favored by NBA, however, all the knowledge he learned in the university-the management of sports events and recreational activities and later education-were paving the way for his coaching career.
After graduating from college, he worked as an intern in a subsidiary specializing in basketball video competition content in basketable nets, assisting players in training and editing opponent’s game videos. Unlike spoolstra, another coach with Asian ancestry who also started as a video editor, Gibbon still didn’t get the promotion opportunity after two years in basketable nets.
But fortunately, he was not completely unappreciated. In 2011, Mike Fratello, a famous coach who coached 40 years in American basketball, extended an olive branch to him and invited him to join his coaching team. However, the destination where Fratello took him was not in the United States, but Kiev-his new job was to be the director of video analysis in Ukraine men’s basketball. (Gibbon still kept in touch with the Ukrainian players who had coached last year.)
Their cooperation was quite pleasant. Fratello wrote in his blog that when preparing for the European qualifier of London Olympic Games, Gibbon was very dedicated and was the first teaching assistant to arrive in Kiev. They looked for training facilities together, discussed tactics, and specially selected a Japanese restaurant to receive the wind for Gibbon. Although Ukraine failed to qualify for the Olympics, Fratello helped Gibbon and recommended him to Tom sibodu, the latter will also become the most important “noble” in Gibbon’s coaching career “.
The Bull in 2011 was a popular champion in Ran Ran. The Genius Rose gained the youngest MVP and Sibo also won the coach of the year award. Before the start of the 2011-12 season, Gibbon officially joined the team, becoming the first Japanese coach in NBA and continuing to work in video editing.
Since then, there is no need to mention all kinds of regrets on the bull court, but in the unknown place of this past, Gibbon and Sibo cultivated an unexpected tacit understanding. However, it is not surprising to think about this. Jiben’s rigorous and steadfast attitude towards work will surely win the trust of Xi Shuai.
He needs to quickly cut various clips at the game site for real-time analysis by the coaching staff (unlike the assistant coach, his job is in the dressing room and he will not show up at the side of the game), and he also needs to study the opponent’s playing style, it provides key information for planning tactics. At the same time, it also provides video materials for the preparation of the whole team to meet the different needs of each player in the competition and training.
He also strongly agreed with sibodu’s coaching philosophy, saying that sishuai was the best coach in NBA. “It is the will to not relax in every game and prepare for the whole team.” He said. “Maybe my point of view is biased, but I really think no coach can compare with him in sufficient preparation.”
In contrast, xibodu is a person who cares about loyalty and quality very much (which senior coach is not), he really regarded Ji Ben, who had been diligent and looking up to himself at the same time, as an “apprentice.
After sibodu parted ways with the bull, Kibben went to the Nuggets and continued to work as a videographer under Michael Malone. At that time, Malone presided over the tactical analysis meeting for an hour at any time, and Gibbon was going to act as a tool without emotion to cooperate with Malone’s explanation, show his cut video clips-most of the time it is a scene of his own players making mistakes, and then everyone pricked up their ears to listen to Malone’s reprimand.
However, Ji Ben’s popularity has always been very good (I don’t know if it fits one of the stereotypes of Asian/Asian groups). Young angselde, who once served as the chief assistant in the Nuggets, recalled: “Days is one of the hardest-working people I have ever met. He is the first person to come to the stadium forever. He really can think what the coach thinks.”
In 2016, with xibodu back out of the mountain, he quickly convened the old department. Gibbon was also reused by him. His position became the special assistant to the president of Timberwolves, and later he also served as a player development coach, this is already a very important role in the coach team, and you can give your own guidance at the technical and tactical level. However, sibodu still failed to achieve the champion’s ambition. With the infighting in the Wolf locker room, he was dismissed and Gibbon was naturally cleaned up.
But at this time, Gibbon was no longer a passer-by in the NBA. At least in the coaching circle, everyone knew that he was the most trusted “left and right hand” of sibodu and was fully capable of being alone.
In 2019, in the days when he left NBA temporarily, he went to Tom Cryne, the coach of Georgia University, and became the head of school basketball tactics and video, just in time for Anthony Edwards’ one-and-done season.
The following summer, SIBO du became the Knicks coach, and Gibbon also returned to NBA. This time, as a formal teaching assistant, he finally got his position on the NBA game.
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Along the way, Gibbon has always been a very small group in NBA.
Over the years, he watched Japanese players come and go. In 2014, Fu Yong Shu represented the Lone Ranger in the summer league, setting the “shortest” record of the Summer League with a height of 1.67 meters, at that time, Gibbon was also in the bull’s Xia Lian teaching assistant group.
Four years later, the Japanese who met him in the summer league became Watanabe Xiong. As early as when Watanabe arrived in America, Gibbon had already known him. Later, Gibbon recruited him on behalf of Fordham University, but he finally chose George Washington University.
Gibbon was very attentive to Watanabe’s game. When traveling to Washington, he did not forget to buy tickets to watch Watanabe’s game. When Watanabe was ready to hit the NBA, Gibbon contacted him on his own initiative. They had a long talk. Watanabe asked a lot of questions about NBA trial training, and Gibbon also gave him special snack missed lessons, tell him that everything must be done first.
When Watanabe played against the Timberwolves in the summer league basketable nets, Gibbon also said rubbish to him in English (“Today is not the day for you to win”), while Watanabe scored four points and got 14 points in the competition, Gibbon was actually very proud.
Jiben, who has lived in the United States since he was 19 years old, has long been fluent in English. Under the working condition of NBA, even if he was interviewed by Japanese media, he insisted on speaking English. According to him, it is because he has become accustomed to English communication in the context of basketball.
“It has been more than 20 years since I came to this strange country. Although I walk slowly step by step, I am moving steadily towards my dream, that is, to become an NBA coach.” He said. “I still have a long way to go, but I will continue to struggle.”
In 2021, he served as head coach in Las Vegas Summer League for the first time; The next year he continued to be promoted and became a formal teaching assistant. The specific position was game analysis and player development coach. He is known as the “ultimate Tool Man” under sibodu, and can undertake Video Editing Analysis, tactical design, player training and other aspects of work.
Sibodu himself also said that newcomers selected by the Knicks, such as quikley and tuoping, rely on Gibbon to give evaluation information. In fact, when Gibbon was still working at the University of Georgia, he had already reminded sibodu to pay attention to quikley. “He told me to pay attention to this child,” sibodu recalled. “He is really like those little defenders in Chicago. He entered shots in Kentucky.”
Once upon a time, Gibbon was unwilling to talk in front of the media. He would not put down the big words casually about the prospect of being a coach, and his vision was very realistic. Not everyone’s starting line is the same, which should be the reason he has understood for many years. He said that the most difficult thing to be a head coach was to unite people. SIBO Duchamp was not always able to do it. As a rare Asian face in NBA, Gibbon was naturally more difficult.
But sibodu has been encouraging him to believe that skin color is not an obstacle and to try his best to find his own voice. So Gibbon said, “I will not regard myself as a minority. My position is a basketball coach, and I hope to do this job better and better. In addition, I certainly hope to inspire other people like me. If I can succeed, then everyone can.”
In fact, being a head coach in the summer league every year is just a job opportunity for more than half a month, but it is precious to him. And his increasingly comfortable command on the field has also been recognized by many New York media and fans.
“To lead a team, I feel that I have gradually become accustomed to this role and gained more confidence,” Gibbon said.
“I can’t play NBA games. To prove myself in this circle, I can only make all my efforts to ensure that I can provide correct information and give correct answers at any time. This is not something that can be done overnight, but it needs to accumulate over a long period of time. Step by step, year by year, this is the road I am taking now.”
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(Text/kewell)
