Isaac Fotu was a key player as his Japanese club won the Japan League championship in 2022 and he also played FIBA World Cup Qualifying games to help New Zealand secure a berth at the 2023 World Cup to be held in August. Isaac played World Cup qualifiers against Saudi Arabia and Jordan as well as a warm up game against Japan. Fittingly two of his highest scoring games for New Zealand have come against Japan. His highest score is 34 points against China followed by 24 against Japan last year and 23 prior to the World Cup in 2019.
Fotu is currently playing for Brex Utsunomiya that play in the Japan-B1, the top league in the country. When announcing his move to Japan in the second half of 2021, he commented “After seven seasons playing in Europe I’m very excited about my move to Japan. I know basketball is becoming very popular in the country so I’m happy to be part of it.” His move from Italy brought almost instant success. Despite Brex only finishing seventh in the regular season they put together an impressive play-off campaign in 2022. In the best-of-three game series they beat second seed Chiba 2-0 in the quarter-finals, saw off Kawasaki 2-0 in the semi’s and repeated the 2-0 margin in the Grand Final series against Ryukyu. Isaac averaged 13.2 points and 6.1 rebounds per game across a gruelling 62 game season – one of only three Brex players not to miss a game!
With 68 caps to his name, we look forward to Isaac adding to that number at the FIBA World Cup later this year.
Accepting this award on Isaac’s behalf is his mum and Dad, Jenny & Manu Fotu
