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Yuta Tabuse (田臥勇太 Tabuse Yuta, born October 5 1980 in Japan) is an NBA basketball player for the Phoenix Suns. A point guard, Tabuse is 5'9" and 165 pounds (1.75 m, 75 kg).
Tabuse became the first Japanese born player in history to be signed by an NBA team and participate during a season, when, on November 1, 2004, the Suns decided to sign him as the Suns' twelfth member for the 2004-2005 NBA season. Suns assistant coach Marc Iavaroni described him as a "clever little player".
Tabuse is an experienced player: Having played many years in his native country, he is well known by Japanese, especially teenagers. About that, Tabuse commented to writer Jeff Simoneda that "If Japanese kids wear (his) jersey, that would be awesome".
Tabuse, who lists Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas as his favorite NBA players of all time, graduated from BYU-Hawaii in 2002. That same year, he became the first Japanese to participate in an NBA's summer league camp team, when he played for Dallas during the summer league tournament. Tabuse's first attempt at making it to the NBA made the headlines in Japan, and drew large media attention. He was, however, cut off the team before pre-season began for the 2002-03 NBA season.
In 2003, Tabuse made his second attempt at becoming the first Japanese to make it to the NBA as a regular season player. His attempt was, once again, a large event for the Japanese media to cover. Although he became the first Japanese player to make it to an NBA pre-season roster, the Denver Nuggets cut him off their team before the season began.
Tabuse then went to play alongside Dennis Rodman on an ABA team during the summer of 2004.
His third try at becoming the first Japanese to play during the NBA's regular season drew increasing Japanese media attention. During the 2004-05 NBA's pre-season, Tabuse averaged only one point per game with the Phoenix Suns. Nevertheless, he was able to reach his goal of being the NBA's first Japanese player when he was signed after the pre-season was over. He scored 7 points in his first NBA game against the Atlanta Hawks on November 3, 2004. He was waived by the Suns on December 16th, 2004. He now plays for the Long Beach Jam of the American Basketball Association.
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