“Yokohama Excellence” announced today on their social networks that the contract with the team has officially expired for Klav Chavar. He represented the team in 50 games in the Japan B3 League, averaging 12.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 26.3 minutes played. His performance helped Yokohama reach the quarter-finals of the B3 league (sixth place in the 18-team regular season), where they fell short.
“Klav saved the game for us several times with his strong physical play and accurate defense,” general manager Takaki Ishida was quoted as saying in the club’s statement. “His performance in the fight for rebounds was always something we could count on. I consider Klavas a professional who always thinks about the club and acts accordingly. His experience as a player of the Latvian national team was an important asset for our club. We will support and sympathize with him throughout his career to be continued!”
In the club statement, Chavar admitted that he failed to fulfill the main goal: “It’s no secret that we didn’t fulfill the goal of entering the B2 league. But I want to say a big thank you to the team’s fans, who always found a way to support us, despite the way we played. Also thanks to the whole organization of “Yokohama Excellence” who made me feel welcome here. Also thanks a lot to all my teammates, we experienced both good and bad moments together and I believe we helped each other become better players. I hope to see you all again .”
This was Čavar’s first season in Japanese basketball – previously he spent two seasons in Poland, before that he also played in Belarus and Turkey, as well as in leading clubs in Latvia. Center forward Čavars represented Latvia at the World Cup in 2023, helping it achieve one of the biggest successes in the national team’s history, finishing fifth in the world. Čavars also played for the Latvian national team in February in the “EuroBasket 2025” qualification, helping Latvia to win over Spain and Slovakia, and now he is preparing to join the training process of the national team before the OS qualification tournament at the beginning of July.
As Chavars explained to the Sportacentrs.com portal, concluding new contracts in the Japanese basketball system is a little more complicated than in Europe, that is, during the season, teams are not allowed to talk to players about contract extensions at all, they can only start doing so after a certain deadline. On the other hand, after the end of the season, if the team does not offer the player a new contract, then he must be officially placed on the list of free agents, which accordingly happened today.
Resources used:
https://yokohama-ex.jp/news/detail/…
Tags: Chavar leaves Japanese team Yokohama Excellence contract Basketball Sportacentrs .com
