Mototaka Kohama

Mototaka Kohama (小浜元孝, Kohama Mototaka) was a Japanese basketball Head coach for the Akita Isuzu Motors, Isuzu Motors Lynx/Giga Cats and Yokohama Giga Cats. He was known as the “Godfather of Japanese basketball,” and served as head coach of the Japan national basketball team three times. Growing up in Akita during WWII as a young boy, he was told to stop playing basketball because it was an American sport. The pioneer studied basketball coaching at the University of Kentucky.^[1][2]

Born(1932-10-17)October 17, 1932

Tokyo

Died12 January 2017(2017-01-12) (aged 84)

Minato, Tokyo, Japan

NationalityJapanese

High schoolSumida Technical HS (Tokyo, Japan)

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Mototaka Kohama

Personal information
Born	(1932-10-17)October 17, 1932 Tokyo
Died	12 January 2017(2017-01-12) (aged 84) Minato, Tokyo, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Career information
High school	Sumida Technical HS (Tokyo, Japan)
Position	Head coach
Career history
Playing
1951-1958	Nippon Mining
Coaching
?	Showa Gakuin HS
?	Yasuda Life
?	Hitachi Totsuka Leopard
1977	Hosei University
1979	Japan National
1984-1989	Japan
1996-2000	Japan
1982-1992	Akita Isuzu Motors/Isuzu Motors Lynx
1994-2005	Isuzu Motors Lynx/Giga Cats/Yokohama Giga Cats
2007-2017	Ikai Red Chimps
Career highlights
As player: Japanese High School MVP As coach: Japanese college champion (1977) JBL2 champion (1983) 6x Emperor's Cup champions (1984, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001) 6x JBL champions (1988, 1995,1996, 1997, 1998, 2000)

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