After six years, the NBA veteran forward Yuta Watanabe is bidding farewell to the league, but he will continue playing basketball.
The 29-year-old Japanese forward, who spent the 2023-24 season between the Phoenix Suns and Memphis Grizzlies, is set to return home to play in his home country.
Watanabe is finalizing a deal to sign with the Chiba Jets of the B.League, Japan's premier basketball league, as Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews reported.
The move is regarded as one of the biggest in Japanese basketball league history, given Watanabe's already established fame in Japan since his college basketball career in the United States from 2014 to 2018.
The 6-foot-9 appeared in 29 games for the Suns last season before being dealt during the trade deadline to the Memphis Grizzlies, the same team where he began his NBA career after they signed him as an undrafted free agent following the 2018 NBA Draft.
Yuta Watanabe ends tenure in the United States
Watanabe moved to the United States in 2013 as a 19-year-old, finishing high school at St. Thomas More School in Oakdale, Connecticut.
He then pursued NCAA Division I basketball with the George Washington Colonials based in the nation's capital.
After his initial stint with the Grizzlies from 2018 to 2020, Watanabe made stops with the Toronto Raptors from 2020 to 2022 and the Brooklyn Nets in 2022-23 before splitting his time with the Suns and Grizzlies last season.
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