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Will the former All-American scoring sensation from Louisiana State return to Kyoto? "It's hard to say," he said. "You never know what's in the organization's mind." If not Kyoto, will Abdul-Rauf, the No. 3 pick in the 1990 NBA Draft, entertain offers from other bj-league teams, including, possibly, the four new expansion clubs — Shinshu Brave Warriors, Chiba Jets, Yokohama B-Corsairs and Iwate Big Bulls? "Again, you never know what people are thinking," he blurted out. "You would think based on what you bring to the table that would, but I've been in situations where I've done extremely well in a country and you don't even get called back." Japan Times

Japan, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf 

Still too young to jump straight into the N.B.A., (Jeremy) Tyler went to Japan for a second chance and to hone his raw skills in a league with many former N.B.A. and U.S. college players. After a season under the former N.B.A. coach Bob Hill, during which he also got advice from older teammates, including the former Seattle Supersonics center Robert Swift, Tyler’s nascent career, where he could play a role as a rebounder and interior defender, could be turning around. “Being in Japan is amazing, especially in Tokyo,” said the 6-foot-11, or 2.11-meter, power forward, just days before the March 11 earthquake forced his league to cancel the season. “Everybody is so positive — my coaches, my teammates. There are so many different things to explore here. I’m really enjoying my time here. Basketball is taking care of itself.” New York Times

Draft, Jeremy Tyler, Japan 

Along with other American players and coaches, Tyler returned to the United States soon after the earthquake, and he has gone to the Dallas area to continue training with Hill, team officials said. The Tokyo Apache canceled the rest of its season, along with teams from Saitama and Sendai, while teams in other areas continue playing. Several coaches and players said Tyler’s experience in Japan, though brief, could raise his stock in the N.B.A. draft. New York Times

Draft, Jeremy Tyler, Japan 

Hill, who mentored David Robinson while winning 62 games with the San Antonio Spurs in 1994-95, also coached in New York, Indiana, Seattle and several countries before joining the Apache this season in Japan’s basketball league, where teams often play three American players at a time. He said Tyler had simply been too young to jump from his junior year at San Diego High School to a different culture. “How can you send an 18-year-old to Israel by himself? First of all, the Israel league is good. There’s no way he was ready, especially if he didn’t have an American coach who could bring him along. I mean, they took him out of high school in his junior year. It was a disaster. He didn’t do well. He’s doing much better here than he did in Israel.” New York Times

Draft, Bob Hill, Jeremy Tyler, Japan 

Johan Petro: Yes, I want to help provide disaster relief and support for Japanese children. A massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake has hit Japan, triggering a deadly tsunami. Japanese media report that the death toll is rising and thousands are missing. It is the worst earthquake to hit Japan in at least a century and has sparked dozens of fires, including in more than 30 buildings in Tokyo and an oil refinery near the city. Save The Children

New Jersey Nets, Johan Petro, Japan 

The deadly earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11 sent several former NBA players packing from the country. The ex-NBA players included Richie Frahm, Robert Swift, Charles O’Bannon, Kenny Satterfield, Jerald Honeycutt, Japan native Yuta Tabuse and J.R. Sakuragi (formerly J.R. Henderson). NBA draft prospect Jeremy Tyler has also returned home. About the only ex-NBA player still playing there right now is Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf for Kyoto Hannaryz. Yahoo! Sports

Jeremy Tyler, Japan, Robert Swift, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Yuta Tabuse 

LaMarcus Aldridge watched the devastation and destruction unfold on TV earlier this month as a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami battered Japan. He read about contaminated water and nuclear radiation and widespread human suffering. And the Trail Blazers' big man picked up his phone, called his agent and told him he wanted to do something to help. "I know they are going through a lot over there," Aldridge said. "I had to do something." As a result, Aldridge, as part of a collaborative effort among several NBA players, will donate $1,000 for every point he scores tonight against Oklahoma City to Direct Relief International's Japan Relief and Recovery Fund. Oregonian

Portland Trail Blazers, LaMarcus Aldridge, Japan 

Aldridge will join Paul Gasol (Lakers), Marc Gasol (Memphis), Al Horford (Atlanta), JaVale McGee (Washington), Derrick Rose (Chicago) and Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City) in donating based on their performances in separate games played Friday through Sunday. Players who designated Friday as their relief game raised $77,000. Thirteen other NBA players have pledged to donate a set amount. "We're truly blessed over here," Aldridge said. "We have water and we're not dealing with that type of crisis. I'm just doing my part to try to help because I can and I think any little bit they can get is going to be big for them." Oregonian

Portland Trail Blazers, LaMarcus Aldridge, Japan 

Gasol had pledged $1,000 for every point he scored Friday to help the Japanese people affected by the earthquake and tsunami and wanted to score as much as possible. He finished with 26 points in the Lakers’ 112-104 victory against the Clippers. “I’m not particularly a fan of that,” Jackson said of a player tying his performance to donations. “Point totals shouldn’t be criteria.” Gasol, however, was pleased with the outcome, especially in light of Magic Johnson’s promise to match the amount the Lakers forward would be donating. A little math and that comes out to be $52,000 to the Japan Relief Fund. “It was great. We’re creating awareness of how many people are suffering,” Gasol said. “Obviously, the natural disaster that Japan suffered is really rough. So I think that all the support that we can create and all the more that we can contribute, the better. This was a good way for me to be involved.” Orange County Register

Los Angeles Lakers, Pau Gasol, Japan 

Magic Johnson matched Gasol's donation, resulting in $52,000 raised by the pair by the night's end. Jackson said he understood Gasol's intention, but wish he would have attached his donation to a statistic other than points scored. "I don't think that's a good idea, I'm not particularly a fan of that but I am a fan of people giving money to charity," Jackson said. "But, I don't think point total should be the criteria ... Minutes could be [the measure] or perhaps even what's the differential is between the teams that you're playing ... It's not like a home run derby, basketball has to be played with a sense of right time, right thing." ESPN.com

Los Angeles Lakers, Pau Gasol, Phil Jackson, Magic Johnson, Japan 

Chuck Swirsky: Congrats to D Rose donating 24-thousand dollars ( 24pts vs Memphis) for the Japan relief effort -classy move Twitter

Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Japan 

Although he's spent the past two seasons in the JBL, after a three-season run in the D-League trying to stay on the NBA's radar, Tabuse's agents Ian Rubel and Marc Cornstein managed to secure an NBA out clause in his Brex contract, just in case Tabuse is the one who's proven right. Just in case the New York Knicks, as Tabuse keeps believing, will keep him in their thinking somewhere as long as Mike D'Antoni is coaching them. "True point guards are one of the most valuable commodities in the sport," Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said. "And Yuta has NBA experience. Those kinds of players are always in the mix." ESPN.com

Free Agency, Japan, Yuta Tabuse 

And now Tabuse is back to give the cause its Japanese voice. He took NBA interest in his homeland to unseen levels when he unexpectedly made the Phoenix Suns' roster as Japan's first-ever NBA player in the 2004-05 season and just returned to the States in hopes of using his NBA and Nike connections to raise awareness of Japan's plight. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound point guard, who turned 30 in October, arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday night and hopes to connect with former teammates such as Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion. The plan? Arrange a charity game to raise emergency funds and/or bring NBA players to Japan as soon as possible for youth clinics. ESPN.com

Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns, Amare Stoudemire, Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, Japan, Yuta Tabuse 

Tabuse only appeared in four games with the Suns in '04-05, for a whopping total of 17 minutes, but he's been a known quantity to NBA personnel folks for years, even before he was out of high school. When Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Dwane Casey was coaching Japan's national team in the mid-1990s, Casey let Tabuse play in some of the exhibition games leading up to the 1998 FIBA World Championships, cementing Tabuse's rock-star status at home. The little speedster's celebrity is such that he appeared on the cover of the Japanese edition of EA Sports' "NBA Live" video game in 2006, despite the fact that he was waived in training camp by the Los Angeles Clippers in the fall of 2005 and didn't play at all in the NBA in the preceding season. "He's the Ichiro of Japanese basketball," Casey says. ESPN.com

Phoenix Suns, Japan, Yuta Tabuse 

From now on, Tabuse will be playing for his flag more than ever. Whether he's with Link Tochigi or the national team or on NBA summer-league duty somewhere trying to keep that lifelong dream alive, Tabuse will also be playing for the visibility he can bring to Japan's crisis, which has left more than 25,000 people either missing or dead … and has turned the Brex Arena Utsunomiya into a shelter for those displaced by the radiation scare. "The earthquakes are still coming, two times or three times a day," Tabuse said earlier this week. "So we're worried about the earthquakes and the radioactivity. But we [will] try to overcome this. We try to overcome the disaster. "If I keep challenging to make [the] NBA, it's [encouragement] for the Japanese people. Of course I want to play for myself, but I want [to] encourage the victims. I want to play for the Japanese people, especially for the kids." ESPN.com

Phoenix Suns, Japan, Yuta Tabuse 

Pau Gasol, brother Marc, LaMarcus Aldridge, Al Horford, JaVale McGee, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook are donating $1,000 per point they score in upcoming games to Direct Relief International’s Japan Relief and Recovery Fund. Pau said: “The world’s got to team up. I knew I was going to do something; it was a matter of who and when.” Orange County Register

Los Angeles Lakers, Pau Gasol, Japan 

Spurs Nation will have at least one reason to hope that LaMarcus Aldridge has a big game against the their team Friday night in Portland, while still rooting for a Spurs victory. Aldridge has joined NBA standouts Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles Lakers, Derrick Rose of Chicago and Al Horford of Atlanta in pledging $1,000 per point from their Friday games to Japanese relief efforts from the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. San Antonio Express-News

Portland Trail Blazers, LaMarcus Aldridge, Japan 

If Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose scores at his season average of 24.9 points Friday vs. Memphis, the Japan earthquake and tsunami relief effort will be about $25,000 richer. Rose has joined other NBA notables Pau Gasol from the Los Angeles Lakers, LaMarcus Aldridge from the Portland Trail Blazers and Al Horford from the Atlanta Hawks in pledging to donate $1,000 for every point they score in designated games this weekend. Chicago Tribune

Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Japan 

Rose has joined other NBA notables Pau Gasol from the Los Angeles Lakers, LaMarcus Aldridge from the Portland Trail Blazers and Al Horford from the Atlanta Hawks in pledging to donate $1,000 for every point they score in Friday's games. Direct Relief International announced the initiative, which will provide medical care for those affected by the disaster. Direct Relief created the Japan Relief and Recovery Fund in partnership with the Japanese American Citizens League. “When disaster strikes we are all on the same team,” Rose said in a statement. “Right now we’re all pulling for the people of Japan. Through the good work of Direct Relief International and other organizations in this country, we need to step up and help however we can.” Chicago Tribune

Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Japan 

How was the moment of the earthquake for you? Will Graves: At the moment of the earthquake I was asleep on the bus and woke up. I noticed the bus kept swaying side to side. Because there was a snow storm going on, I thought it was the effects from that. We swayed for a couple of minutes, so I just tried to go back to sleep. When we got back to Akita, there was no power in the city. It took us an hour to travel what usually takes 10 minutes by car. As for the rest of the day, night, and next day, there was no power and no way to eat – for me, because I didn’t have the resources. HoopsHype

Japan, Will Graves