San-en_NeoPhoenix
San-en NeoPhoenix
Professional basketball team in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
San-en NeoPhoenix (三遠ネオフェニックス, San'en Neofenikkusu) is a B.League professional basketball team, based in the eastern Mikawa and Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture region of central Japan.
The team was founded in 1965 as the company team of the OSG Corporation, a Toyokawa-based machine parts manufacturer. It remained a local team in Aichi prefecture until 1995, when it first participated in the All-Japan Professional Basketball Championships. It joined the Japan Basketball League (JBL) in 1999, winning the Second Division championship in 2000. “Higashimikawa” was added to the team name in 2007, when its home stadium was moved to Toyohashi. It ended the 2007 season in third place.
From 2008, the Higashimikawa Phoenix joined the new bj league, and the following year, “Hamamatsu” was added to the team name to emphasize the compound franchise among Toyohashi, Hamamatsu, and the surrounding districts and the team was legally registered as an independent corporation under the name of “Phoenix Communications”. The team signed the noted Chinese basketball star, Sun Mingming, in 2008.[1]
In July 2015 it was announced that the team will compete in the first division of the new Japan Professional Basketball League, which will commence from October 2016.[2] Accordingly it was changed the club name to "SAN-EN NEOPHOENIX", and transferred to the home arena to Toyohashi.
