{"id":18533,"date":"2025-07-24T12:47:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T12:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/18533\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T12:47:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T12:47:14","slug":"perth-set-for-international-showdown-with-japans-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/18533\/","title":{"rendered":"Perth set for international showdown with Japan\u2019s best"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Perth Wildcats will welcome one of Japan\u2019s most decorated clubs this September, as the Ryukyu Golden Kings join Sunrockers Shibuya and the South East Melbourne Phoenix for a two-day tournament in Perth.<\/p>\n<p>Hosted at the Perth High Performance Centre, the Perth Wildcats Invitational will further enhance the NBL\u2019s and club\u2019s collaboration with the B.LEAGUE.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBringing Japanese teams to Perth and continuing to build these relationships is something we\u2019re really passionate about,\u201d Wildcats Club Owner and CEO Mark Arena said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur Japan trip last year was an incredible experience for our players, staff and club. To now be hosting two of Japan\u2019s top teams right here in Perth is a fantastic next step.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to see the Wildcats play a role in helping grow the connection between the NBL and B.LEAGUE. We believe these exchanges offer great value both on and off the court, and we look forward to continuing this partnership into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Ryukyu Golden Kings rank among Japan\u2019s most successful basketball clubs, boasting six national titles, including the 2022\u201323 B.LEAGUE championship. Their current lineup features dominant American centre Jack Cooley and versatile forward Keve Aluma.<\/p>\n<p>Former Wildcat Vic Law is also a member of the Golden Kings\u2019 squad.<\/p>\n<p>It will also be fans\u2019 first opportunity to see new signing Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. in action for the Wildcats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis tournament will be ideal preparation for our group leading into NBL26, offering strong on-court competition and the opportunity for the team to build connections off the floor,\u201d Perth\u2019s GM of Basketball Operations Danny Mills said.<\/p>\n<p>Game day 1: Friday, September 12 @ Perth HPC<br \/>Game 1: SEM Phoenix vs Ryukyu Golden Kings \u2013 5pm AWST<br \/>Game 2: Perth Wildcats vs Sunrockers Shibuya \u2013 7.30pm AWST<\/p>\n<p>Game day 2: Sunday, September 14 @ Perth HPC<br \/>Game 1: SEM Phoenix vs Sunrockers Shibuya \u2013 2pm AWST<br \/>Game 2: Perth Wildcats vs Ryukyu Golden Kings \u2013 4.30pm AWST<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/687451e40ce51cb263571662_681e823466fb3c3c5ee8dd7a_a6e0d0a0-c9da-4bd4-bf10-ca5514573639.jpeg\" alt=\"1920x250 (2)\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Perth Wildcats will welcome one of Japan\u2019s most decorated clubs this September, as the Ryukyu Golden Kings&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-18533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}