KOR - "Everybody is only interested in the KBL"

Change of mind needed in Korean basketball

HAMBURG (FIBA U17 World Championship) - The Korean basketball team is one of the big outsiders at the first FIBA U17 World Championship in Hamburg. But they could also be one of the surprises, because they displayed a surprising combination loads of effort and quickness in their first two games; a style that sets itself aside from that played by many of the other countries.

What is basketball all about in Korea? What has to be done to have more success in the future ?

These are but two of the many questions FIBA.com put to the U17 head coach Seung Hwan Kim.

Korea's men´s basketball is ranked 15th in the FIBA world ranking, which is quite a high position for a modest basketball country. The situation in Asia with limited strong opponents and the successes of Korean basketball teams at Continental Championships are responsible for that.

"In the 1990s, basketball was the most popular sport in Korea. But this has changed a lot, nowadays baseball and football (especially since the World Cup in 2002) are much more popular."

There are no special basketball education centres in Korea, every region and/or school is doing its own thing.

Almost all basketball education in Korea is done in schools. There is a nationwide system of school basketball, which sees players picked at age 12/13. The middle school and high school teams of the whole country meet every month for tournaments.

At these tournaments, the federation´s coaches and officials are present and spend time spotting the talented players. This system continues at universitie level as well.

Two students leagues with 11 and eight teams are organised in Korea.

Each October, Korea organises a kind of "Olympic Games", which involves many different sports, where teams of different cities take part. Depending on the result they get prize money to finance the sport. The Korean Basketball Federation mainly is financed by the government.

But all of this is not of very big interest in the Korean public. The professional basketball League KBL is dominating basketball in the Asianc country. Ten teams with some very good foreigners have built their own fan culture, which is of even more interest than the NBA. "NBA is only for real insiders here. Everybody is only interested in the KBL“, says Seung Hwan Kim.

He says the situation is unfortunate: "It is our federation´s main problem that everybody is only thinking about the pros. Support for work and changes to the basics of basketball structure in our country is needed but missing. There has to be a change of mind if we want to have more success in the future“, Kim explains.

There is one other fact why Korea has not been very successful in the past years. "We have been always the second best Asian team behind China. But with the addition of the arabian countries this has changed", is Kim's conclusion.

And he is very happy and proud about beiing at the FIBA U17 World Championship with his team, thanks to an excellent second place finish (behind China) at last year's FIBA Asia U16 Championship.

FIBA