The Chiba Jets announced Thursday that former NBA player Yuta Watanabe will join the team for the 2024-25 B. League season.
The 29-year-old forward, who stands at 206 centimeters, has “reached a basic agreement” on a contract with the Jets for the upcoming season, according to the announcement.
The Jets reached the B. League semifinals this past season and also captured the East Asia Super League title, defeating the Seoul SK Knights 72-69 in the final in March.
Watanabe will wear No.1 and is expected to join the team after playing for Japan at the Paris Olympics, with a news conference scheduled for August.
Watanabe took to Instagram to share the news with his fans following the team’s announcement.
“Excited to announce that I have signed with Chiba Jets,” Watanabe wrote in a post on his Instagram account. “I’m super excited to start a new professional career back in Japan.”
Watanabe graduated from Jinsei Gakuen High School in Kagawa Prefecture in 2013 before spending a year at St. Thomas More School in Connecticut.
He played collegiately at George Washington University after becoming the first Japanese-born man to receive an NCAA Division I basketball scholarship.
Watanabe signed a two-way contract with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2018 and made his NBA debut on Oct. 27 of that season, becoming the second Japanese player to compete in the league. Watanabe went on to play for the Toronto Raptors, Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns over the next five seasons before being traded back to Memphis on Feb. 8.
In an Instagram Live session on April 20, Watanabe, the longest-tenured Japanese player in NBA history at six seasons, revealed his intention to leave the NBA and return to Japan for the next phase of his career.
Watanabe appeared in 213 games in the NBA, averaging 4.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.4 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game in 13.3 minutes.
He also played in 56 NBA G League games over parts of three seasons, averaging 15.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.1 blocks per game.
Watanabe has been a mainstay on the Japanese national team since high school, competing in the 2019 and 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cups and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were delayed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.