Korean Beat has a few interesting factoids about the Korean Basketball Leauge. According to an article in the Sports Hanguk, over 600 foreign players will compete in an upcoming tryout in Las Vegas. Oddly, the league makes players who have already succeeded in the league to tryout all over again.
Among those with KBL experience are 29-year old Terence Shannon, who was awarded last season’s top foreign player award, 29-year old Victor Thompson, who played well for Samsung and Jeonju KCC, and 26-year old Brandon Klump.
Another odd rule (to me) is that the league doesn’t allow players with two years of experience in major European professional leagues to attend the tryout.
The article also focuses on the number of Americans of Korean descent that are trying out.
There are also Americans of Korean descent. 28-year old Tony Aikins has announced his intention to attend the try out and 30-year old Eric Sandrine of the Daegu Orions has also registered.
Also, 20-year old Jonathan Choi and 31-year old Mark Yu are gathering attention for having names which suggest Korean heritage.
6 responses so far ↓
1 baekgom84 // Jun 4, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I didn’t get this at all. What sort of bonkers rule would require an established, proven performer to TRY OUT for the team the following season?
2 Shinsano // Jun 4, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Actually Korea Beat put an update up on this…turns out only three players from last year were re-signed by their clubs — which explains why so many guys are going back to tryouts.
Funny because a few weeks ago I was in Seoul for a tournament and stayed at a hotel where I overheard a woman talking about how her husband was an agent for three guys playing basketball in Korea. She had come along for the trip.
Korean baseball players don’t have agents. The teams just kind of decide what players get. I wonder if basketball is the same. That woman might be the wife of the only Korean basketball player agent in the world.
3 simon // Jun 4, 2008 at 2:16 pm
That’s just bizarre.
And the restrictions are just for major European leagues? You’d think NBDL should be applied too if they want to limit the foreign domination.
The Filipino league has a height limit!
> Only Filipinos are allowed to play, non-Filipinos can play as “imports”, and only on certain conferences. Currently the Fiesta Conference limits imports of one per team, with no height limit; two teams with the worst records after the Philippine Cup eliminations receive an import of unlimited height and another with a height limit of 6′1″.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Basketball_Association
4 Shinsano // Jun 4, 2008 at 2:23 pm
The Korean league had a height limit too, but as I understand they’re doing away with it this offseason. But I think they do have a weird rule that says you can only have a certain number of foreign height on your team. Like…two guys totalling 13 feet or something. If you have a 6′9 guy you can’t have another guy taller than 6′3.
Yeah, I wonder what the deal is with the Euro league guys. Could that be to cut down on player movement?
No, that can’t be…resigning 3 of twenty some odd foreign players creates player movement.
There’s a US beef joke in here somewhere, but I haven’t got it yet.
5 Jeeho // Jun 4, 2008 at 11:47 pm
The height limit used to be 400 centimeters combined for two players, with no one player being taller than 208 centimeters. Not sure what that comes to in feet, though. 208 would be around 6-foot-10 or 11.
Anyway, they’re scrapping the rule because of 7-foot-3 Ha Seung-jin, who was drafted No. 1 overall for next season.
As for restricting guys with Euroleague experience… it’s basically to prevent ‘good’ players from coming here and taking over… The KBL wants to nurture local talent, etc…
And starting in 2009-10 season, we will have only one foreign player on court at any time during the game. Now, it’s two players in 1st and 4th quarters, and just one in 2nd and 3rd quarters.
6 Korea Beat // Jun 5, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Pretty surprising that so few foreigners appear to have been re-signed, especially Terence Shannon. Some teams during the season were complaining about foreign players not living up to expectations — but only the teams who wanted to see draft reforms enacted.
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