Korea - Korea courts sexy players in basketball

From times.hankooki.com
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The 2007 Women’s Korea Basketball League is establishing a global standard for the game _ sex appeal.

The league’s winter season began Friday as the Woori Bank Hansae beat the Samsung Life Insurance Bichumi 67-55.

The game was a rout, but many spectators’ eyes were on Bichumi player 25-yearold Lauren Jackson, the statuesque Australian blonde who is among the world’s best female players and is notorious for posing nude two years ago for a magazine.

At 1.96 meters tall, she towers over her Korean teammates and most opponents. Korean fans will get to see her on the court over the next three years during the winter.

In a sort of battle of the beautiful, no less an attraction for the league will be Korean-American Maria Brown of Kumho Life Insurance Redwings. Brown, 22, has a Korean mother and an American father and stands 1.75 meters tall. She graduated last year from Pace University in New York City, where recorded 9.7 points per game on average, along with 5.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists.

Under league rules, teams may hire only one foreign player. But in October, the league decided to regard any player of even partial Korean origin as Korean. That meant Brown could join the Redwings along with another American, Michelle Snow.

"I’ve never heard I am pretty in the United States. I appreciate fans here for their interest," she said recently in a local media outlet. "But I want to become known more as a good player, not just a good-looking player."

Still, Jackson remains the most glamorous hoop star in Korea by far.

Jackson has made more than 60 international appearances with the Australian national team since becoming the youngest player ever for the team when she was 16. In September she led her country to win the World Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Kim Eun-hye, 24, may be the best-looking Korean in the league. The Woori Bank forward, 1.82 meters, is dubbed by local fans "eolzzang shooter," meaning the one with the beautiful face.

Since joining the league in 2001, Kim has led Woori Bank to the championship title four times.

Katie Feenstra, 24, of Shinsegae Coolcat is another attractive blonde who is a powerful scoring threat on the court. At 2.03 meters, she is the tallest player in the league. She will play for a second year for Shinsegae. Last season, she scored 26.8 points per game.

An American, she graduated from Liberty University in 2005 and played for San Antonio Silver Stars for two seasons. She was named to the 2005 All-Rookie Team.

These top foreign players come to Korea because there is no women’s basketball scheduled in the United States during the winter months. With their height advantage over most Korean players, Jackson and the others undoubtedly will treat fans to some dunks, a rare occurrence in Korea. More dunks will likely be seen because the league has decided to award three points for a slam down.