OK, if you have anything to say about today’s hoops action, say it here.
For what it’s worth, I watched the game, and two things stood out. Firstly, the Korean national team (and their fans) seemed to take the thrashing in good humor. I’m pretty sure they were just happy to get the chance to one day tell their grandkids that they were dunked on by LeBron James. Secondly, the U.S. team seemed a lot more likable than some of the previous Dream Teams. Looked like they actually wanted to be there, although I guess shooting like 80 percent from the field will put a smile on any team’s face.
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So why does the Korea Times need to rely on AP for a story about a basketball game played in Seoul? I hope they are planning on adding their own story in the next hour or two, or that is just sad (even by the lame, half-assed standards to which I hold the KT and KH).
Anyhow, I’m glad the game went well. But ever since I came to Asia, the Korean team has been infamous for sitting at the three-point line and jacking up long-bombs, alternating with driving to the hoop for a double-clutch and hot-dog play. I cannot speak for traveling violations (as Brendon said in the other thread), but truly, for a country that seems to like basketball a lot, not many people seem to have even a basic understanding of the game. For god’s sake, many of them are worse than I am.
And no Ha Seung-jin (from the Milwaukee Bucks) to light up the scoreboard?
Not that anyone asked, but some of my first memories in Korea are of playing pickup ball in a good, blue-collar neighborhood, the kind of place full of kids who were not worried about the university entrance exam because they knew they were never going to go to Seoul National. Fun times… back when I was thin enough to get to the rim. Sure, I did not have a good shot, but I was slow… Sigh.
highlights…
- hearing bill walton refer to the sea of japan. he can expect a 6-hour seminar from VANK in his hotel room tonight.
- watching ha seung jin travel every single time he touched the ball…and watching the korean refs swallow their whistles.
- watching kim seung-hyun…he of the laughable korea times article declaring him a potential nba prospect…getting routinely stuffed, schooled, driven by at will, and generally embarrassed.
- seeing 7′3″ ha seung jin get consistently outjumped by 6′0″ chris paul and 6′3″ kirk hinrich for rebounds.
- listening to bill walton talk about the “great potential” of ha seung jin within a few seconds of ha pulling off one of his patented “5-steps and then get stuffed by the rim” moves.
- ha seung jin getting promptly benched for the final 3 quarters.
- lebron saluting to the american soldiers group in the stands.
- after a dazzling display of about 25 dunks by team usa throughout the game, team korea got 1 dunk in the dying minutes and the crowd went nuts.
- the korean coach’s shirt was soaked through with 10 pounds of sweat, and he had a fat-ass kim jong-il perm. relax coach, and remember bobby knight’s infamous quote: “if you’re getting raped and there’s nothing you can do, you may as well lay back and enjoy it.”
Kim Seung-Hyun had relatively decent offensive skills, except for protecting the ball. He moves well himself, and can finish if the defender is lax. Physically he was the closest Korean athlete to the “NBA body” we keep hearing about. Kim had little clue on defense. As for the rest of the Korean players they were outmatched physically and skills-wise by the Team USA all-star collection of players at the top of the heap in the country which invented the game. Losing by 53 seemed to have been merciful.
> the country which invented the game
Now don’t go provoking the Canadians, Brendon. Someone is going to post about Naismith and Duck-on-a-Rock.
kim is 5′8″. there was one player in the nba last season shorter than 5′9″, and that’s earl boykins, who is lightning quick, can shoot 3’s, penetrate, and is an excellent defender. every other player in the nba under 6 foot is either an all-world defender (brevin knight, speedy claxton) a lights-out shooter (damon stoudamire), a great penetrator (tj ford), or a combination. kim is none of these, and not only that, but he’s not even close to having the game necessary to play in the nba. he couldn’t survive in the cba.
he’s quick for the korean league (which translates to white-boy slow in the nba) and he can pass. and that’s the extent of his skill set.
Was at the game yesterday…it was an awesome spectacle. Seeing LeBron charging to the hoop was like watching a freight train running through the station at full clip. I am not much of a b-ball fan, but my take on the whole affair was:
Korea - could only really shoot from the outside. They were too slow and had nothing to even threaten USA’s defense at all otherwise. Tall, but looked like they were in slow motion.
USA - Strong and fast. 1 on 1 they were outrageously superior both offensively and defensively. Especially in the 2nd quarter, they made Korea’s defense look like they were pylons. In the 4th quarter, they locked down their defense and forced turnovers or stole the ball several times, much to Korea’s frustration - and much to the crowd’s delight.
Randome notes:
- the stadium was boiling
- for some reason, there were very few concession stands…I thought they would have been selling T-shirts, drinks, etc. everywhere, but no…
- the chant of “U-S-A, U-S-A…” was rather unwelcome and quickly drown out with “Dae han min guk!” haha
can’t let a hoops discussion go without sharing this gem from john canzano of the oregonian:
My favorite Ha memory has to be the story about the 7-foot-3 Ha chasing the 7-foot-4 Ned Sinanovic around the practice facility last summer with a wooden pole.
In case you missed it, the two players were shooting free throws at the end of a rough workout against each other. Sounds peaceful enough, until… Sinanovic made his final free throw, then retrieved the basketball and held it. Ha walked over, because it was his turn, and snatched the ball back. Then, Sinanovic said something under his breath and two giant men ended up on the ground in a pile of wildly swinging elbows and fists.
The fight was broken up by Blazers staffers, and insiders said Ha, who got punched, was left shouting, “I’ll sue! I’ll sue!”
The two were escorted to different areas of the practice facility, and normally the story would end here. Except Ha’s neutral corner was the team weight room. And so he picked up one of those wooden poles that players use to stretch and went after Sinanovic, who blocked one swing with his forearm but took another in the ribs before someone ripped the pole (think: closet dowel) from Ha’s hands and threw it across the courts.
Ha’s swing was best described to me as a mixture of Dave Parker meets Ichiro meets the WWF. Anyone who has ever wanted to swing a closet dowel at an annoying co-worker can relate here.
Not the worst fight in Blazers history, just the one that makes me laugh the hardest. I mean, his name is “Ha” right?
http://www.oregonlive.com/canz.....tml#167866
Any predictions on when Ha gives up basketball and takes up K-1?
“Closest” does not mean “close”. These guys were outmatched in every way — outrageously so, as Vonjackass notes above. Kim had the best combination of strength, speed (such as it was) and agility from among the Koreans but still, Kim’s not an NBA prospect and all of us not writing for the Sports Chosun know it. As for Ha Seung-Jin, he’s only gotten a look because you can’t coach a player to be tall. His footwork is terrible — not even Patrick Ewing travelled as much.
The Marmot is right about the good humor with which the Korean players and crowd took the whipping. Sportsmanship is not dead.
As for the Bill Walton commentary, I sadly missed that. I was stuck with SBS. There was one really laughable sequence where Ha stumbled five steps to the hoop more or less unmolested and clanged it off the rim; it was in the first quarter. Was that where Walton got pantsed, or was it later in the game? I cannot imagine anyone raving about Ha later on. As noted, his buttocks were affixed as firmly to the bench as his feet were to the court. He’s terrible: Jim McIlvaine was an NBA All-Star compared to Ha Seung-Jin. However, Ha is a “bargain” by NBA standards. He will make US$650,000 or so next year at the end of the Milwaukee Bucks’ bench, bringing his three-year haul to more than US$1.6 million. Jim McIlvaine broke up the Seattle SuperSonics with his $6 million a year salary.
Ha Seung-Jin’s sister, however, is underpaid as an athlete (W120 million/year) and grossly overpaid as a commercial spokeswoman (see photo).
Quite a set of choppers she’s got on her.
walton is a perfect example of an announcer skating by on name alone, because his knowledge of the current nba is next to nil. i say current, because he can rattle off all kinds of stats and analysis about the 70’s and 80’s eras, but knows absolutely nothing about the game as its played today. one of the more entertaining aspects of listening to his drivel is hearing snapper jones call him on his bullshit. you can tell jones is fully aware of walton’s cluelessness and takes the piss out of him at every opportunity.
his quote about ha was that “any player that is traded for jamaal magloire must have huge upside and vast potential, as magloire is one of the best big men in the nba.” if it were a straight up 1-for-1 trade, that may be true (as long as it wasn’t a salary dump). but the bucks traded primarily for steve blake and brian skinner, and ha was a throw-in to make the salaries match up. there’s probably a 50/50 chance he doesn’t even make the bucks final roster, and if he does, he’ll be picking blisters out of his ass like he did in portland.
the word out of the vegas summer league was that the blazers were giving up on ha, because despite the fact that he works hard, he simply hasn’t shown any improvement in 2 years, and the project of drafting him had obviously failed. the only factor working in his favor now is that he’s cheap and his contract expires after this season. that alone gives him value for a cost-conscious team like the bucks.
he’ll be in the korean league by this time next year.
Ha Seung-Jin’s 2006-2007 salary is guaranteed; the kid signed a two-year, US$1.3 million deal last year after completion of his first NBA season at the league minimum. He’ll make US$650,000 this year whether he plays or not. He’s “cap filler” from the Bucks’ perspective, and it may be worth US$650,000 to cut Ha (but pay him the guaranteed money) so that a roster spot may be available for another player who presumably has potential to actually develop. The Trail Blazers’ General Manager John Nash, who struck the Ha deal, was fired last year. Probably he got the axe for more than Ha Seung-Jin, but giving a larger contract to the Korean stiff is one of the symptoms of Nash’s problems.
What’s worse is that his son, Luke, gets by on his father’s name with even less skill than his father has modern day NBA knowledge.
ha sucks. it’s one thing to suck in the nba, but when your korean coach doesn’t play you, man, that sucks. btw, what was up with the korean coach’s shirt and tie?
Was at the team USA v Brazil game in Guangzhou last week (90-86). For a neutral fan of basketball, it would have been a good game to watch. For someone rooting for the US, not so great. Lebron seemed to only shoot from the outside in that game, and we got schooled on the rebounding. Wouldn’t have believed there were something like 7 coaches on Team USA (and I’m a Duke fan).
The Chinese seemed to just want a good game, and they loved the big name NBA players, but they seemed just as thrilled when those same players got their comeuppance later in the game.
A good basketball game is a rare treat (especially here in Korea). Unfortunately for me, my experience of basketball has been ruined by my attendance at the Greatest Game Ever Played™, the Busch Braggin’ Rights game on December 22, 1993 at the St. Louis Arena — Mizzou 108, Illini 107 (3OT). There will never be a more thrilling basketball experience. There were a couple close calls afterward, in Mizzou’s NCAA loss to UCLA (1994; Mizzou got jobbed) and several regular-season and NCAA thrillers during the Todd MacCulloch era at the University of Washington, but really nothing matches up to the tension and excitement of that Braggin’ Rights game. Should’ve laminated that ticket stub.
Brendon> I think I have you beat. Philadelphia: Duke v Kentucky, in the Elite Eight of the NCAA’s 1992. No, not 3OT, but it was double OT. I remember congratulating the UK fans right next to me on a great win over us–just a few seconds before Grant Hill lobbed the 3/4 court inbound pass to Laettner. The reaction of Thomas Hill was priceless. After not believing their eyes, the UK fans were good sports in congratulating us. After that game, my friends and I had a happy, drunken time at the bars near UPenn .
I saw that on TV here in Korea when I was stationed at Osan Air Base. This was before the Internet, you know. The game was delayed on AFKN-TV but live on the radio, producing the classic line “Oh, don’t worry. Laettner wins it on a turnaround jumper. I heard it already.”
actually blueballs theres the 5 foot 7 tabuse of japan, who before coming to the nba was hailed as the jordan of japan. he made the cut as the 11th or 12th man, sprained his foot during the first week of last season and hasnt played for the suns since.
team usa is amazing, but it was just exhibition play.
i dont think anyone takes bill walton seriously, so it’s not worth getting bothered by his lame comments. in the beginning he was a hero for overcoming his speech impediment and becoming an announcer, but even he knows half the shit he says either makes no sense or is stupid, and he just talks just for the fun of talking without an impediment.
Brendon> ouch. I can’t stand it when people ruin things by telling the scores to tape delayed games.
further proving my point. tabuse possessed none of the skills i mentioned above, and the “jordan” of japan didn’t last a week in the nba. it had nothing to do with a sprained foot either. he was a curiosity for being the first japanese player in the nba, but he was cut from the suns because he couldn’t contribute, not because of an injury.
much like ha, he got huge cheers whenever he scored a basket in garbage time…which is always the first clue that the player is a well-known joke getting pity applause.
and brendon, 1.3 mil over 2 years was the league minimum for ha, having played 1 year in the league. if they could’ve paid him less, they would have. it was by no means a large contract. john nash was fired for throwing 132 mil at 2 pot-smoking punks who can’t play defense. or as they’re known in portland, miles and randolph.
I can’t decide which nickname I like better: Trial Blazers, or Jail Blazers.
Why, when the FIBA Basketball World Cup is going on, right now, less than a two-hour flight from here, do I have to watch these games over the Internet (for $7.99)? I guess those exhibitions games here a couple of weeks ago did a lot to promote the sport. Stupid cable channels….
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[...] Anyway, I haven’t missed to much it looks like, Team USA trounced the Korean basketball team in Seoul, more fan deaths, Norks threatening a nuclear bomb test whatever, then of course there is nothing wrong with stripping prison guards, a possible ex-English teacher in Korea possibly killed Jon-Benet Ramsey, which has spurred netizen outrage while weirdos like this continue to rape women and children around Korea and no one cares, and one other English teacher is under scrutiny as well for having let’s say to much fun in Korea. So all in all still same old wackiness in the Land of the Morning Calm. [...]