Turns out that Kiiyan didn’t provide direct commentary on the actual game (that was professional commentators), but was a guest, along with Onishi-Lion, a well-known comedian, on the overall NBA program, hosted by Sotaro Nagasawa and Kimura Eri. They discussed the game, upcoming games, players, and had an amusing segment where they discussed players, coaches and owners who had been fined (we learned that the Dallas Mavericks’ owner gets fined a heck of a lot of money!).

His profile on the WOWOW site indicates that his two favourite teams are the Lakers and Indiana Pacers. His favourite players are Kobe Bryant (Lakers) and Paul George (Pacers). His favourite retired players are Michael Jordan and David Robinson. And he got into basketball when he saw the “dream team” of the 1992 Barcelona olympics. (From the broadcast, we found out he’s been a Kobe fan for 18 years!)