Tabuse has been scrutinized by the Japanese media. Jeramie McPeek/Suns.com

For the second straight fall, Japanese point guard Yuta Tabuse is in an NBA training camp. After being cut by the Denver Nuggets a year ago, Tabuse has hooked on with the Phoenix Suns after playing with the Suns summer-league team.

This year, however, it sounds like Tabuse has a good chance to make the team's final roster, which would make him the first Japanese player in NBA history.

"We are unable to disclose the information concerning the contract per team policy," NBA Japan Managing Director Hideki Hayashi said cryptically in the press conference to announce Tabuse's contract, "but we can say that the commitment by the team is bigger as they have made a multi-year offer."

That expectation that Tabuse will make the Suns - and history - doesn't seem to have changed through training camp and Tabuse's Phoenix debut, which saw him score two points, hand out two assists and pilfer two steals in 20 minutes of action in the Suns exhibition opener against the L.A. Clippers.

"Everything's great," Tabuse said. "I don't know how to explain, but I'm very appreciative to the team, very fortunate they gave me the opportunity to play here."

Saturday night, Tabuse was in street clothes because of a thigh contusion as Phoenix played the Seattle SuperSonics at KeyArena. That didn't stop him from being the most popular player on the Suns roster (at least with British Columbia native Steve Nash, who typically draws a large contingent of Canadian fans down to Seattle, staying home in Phoenix to be with his newborn twins). While his Suns teammates sat quietly in the locker room, unbothered by the media, Tabuse was busy even after a group session with several Japanese reporters before the game.

After coming out of the locker room to sit on the Suns bench while his teammates warmed up, Tabuse was the object of the attention of a couple dozen Japanese fans, who snapped photos from behind press row.

It's nothing out of the ordinary for the player regarded as the best Japan has to offer.

"It's good for me and good for the Japanese people," Tabuse said before the game.

At 5-9, Tabuse is one of the shortest players in the NBA, but he makes up for it with dazzling quickness and open-court skill. In his press conference, Tabuse spoke about learning from 5-5 Denver point guard Earl Boykins about overcoming his height while a teammate last year during training camp.

Tabuse used those lessons to average 5.3 points and a team-high 6.3 assists per game for the ABA Champion Long Beach Slam last season after being cut by the Nuggets. He then impressed the Suns during summer league, averaging 4.2 points and 2.1 assists per game between the Reebok Vegas and Rocky Mountain Revue leagues.

"I didn't know (I would be signed by the Suns) before I went to summer league," Tabuse said. "They gave me an opportunity to play in the games in the summer league and I played a little."

Having a Japanese player in the NBA would be, "Very important," Tabuse said. "Japanese basketball is getting popular."

Given the inroads made into baseball by Japanese players, including Seattle Mariners star Ichiro Suzuki, who set the major-league record with 262 hits during the 2004 season, and the superstardom achieved by Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, who is Chinese, the potential seems to be there for more Japanese players to make the leap to the NBA.

"I would say the NBA has grown leaps and bounds over there as far as basketball paraphernalia, ticket sales, the game of the week that they have on their sports station over there is huge," Sonics assistant coach Dwane Casey, who coached in Japan for five years, said before the Sonics traveled to Japan for the first two games of last season.

Because of Casey's legendary status in Japanese basketball, the Sonics almost became Tabuse's first NBA team. He was close to accepting the Sonics offer to attend training camp last season before deciding to play for the Nuggets.

"I have a good relationship with him (Casey) and I wanted to come here for training camp last year, but I chose Denver, where I could get experience," Tabuse said. "I am very appreciative to the Sonics for giving me the opportunity to come to training camp last year."