Incheon Electronics Land coach Choe Hui-am thinks he knows how to rescue the Korean Basketball League from dwindling attendance.
Put a cap on foreign players salaries to lower the quality of foreign players coming here.
That’s right—while everyone else bitches about “low quality foreigners,” particularly in the English teaching profession, Choe thinks the foreign players (or “mercenaries,” as foreign athletes are referred to in Korea) are just too damn good.
And this, he says, is a problem, since games are now decided by foreigner-on-foreigner scraps in the paint. As a result, the skill level of local players is dropping and the popularity of the league is suffering.
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Choe should scout for the U.S. Olympic team
And while they’re at it, they could change the rules. Lower the basket to 5 feet and allow traveling. That way just about anybody can score a basket, and those foreign yongbyeong will feel to embarassed to ask for higher salaries.
Or do what they did to those poor Taiwanese little leaguer’s: make it so they get sent home if it looks like they’re going to whip a Korean.
They’re paying me too much, also. Can I leave now?
This is a bizarre bit of news. Very strange, indeed. If an effort is made to invest in the quality of Korean players, they would improve just like everywhere else in the world where basketball is played.
How about getting rid of the Korean players who seem to be more concerned about not getting injured than scoring?
Improving the quality of the players requires intra-group confrontation, something Koreans are generally loath to do.
this theory goes against common sense to be better you play against better players
and if the league is suffering what about the K-league where there are usually about 1000 fans in a stadium that holds 40,000 people!!!
isnt soccer supposed to be the national sport of korea
if you guys are college hoops fans like myself you will recognize a lot of the guys who play in the KBL
dontae jones played at Miss. St and went to the 96 Final Four lost to Syracuse in teh Semi-finals
Nate Johnson U. of Louisville
Chris Burgess went to Duke (probably the best hoop school in the US) and transfered to Utah
Pete Mikal U. of Cincinatti (spelling)
among others!!
Even Bobby Bacala could be a ringer in Korea.
Improving the quality of the players requires intra-group confrontation, something Koreans are generally loath to do
Mr. Carr, again spot on. I believe the competency is sniping and back biting…. Never let your team member down in the open but stab him in the front when the appropriate audience is present.
Do they have little league basketball in Korea? Koreans just don’t seem to play much.
read more than a few articles that reported that interest in basketball had declined amongst whites due to an increasing amount of blacks.
also read a couple years ago an article that talked about the need to have SOME white nba players to keep whites interested.
ain’t it interesting to see that people are about the same everywhere you go?
****
tonight, i and my fellow americans;-) have taken back our country from the extreme might to the right. tonight, i and my fellow americans:-) have decided to put america right once again. tonight, it’s morning in america. oh, how sweet the sight!
‘RUMSFELD MUST GO!’ army times, navy times, marine times, airforce times, pawikirogi times
Just so you know, pawikirogi, those are privately owned papers that are part of the Gannett Company. They also run USA Today.
Hey, you don’t have to convince us of your Americaness, pawikirogi.
nulji, “fellow American”
Michael Chang, “fellow American”
meh
Anyhoo, it is plainly obvious that the NBA became hugely popular as it transformed from a Middle American whitebread game to a more hip-hop, urban style game. Even among whites. I think nulji probably hadn’t plopped down on our shores at that time yet, though.
pawikirogi, it’s not about a decline in interests amongst whites fans, it’s a general decline in interest if the game is dominated by one race. Whites would lose interest if basketball only had white players. If a basketball team is dominated by one race and then you bring in a good player who is a different race it’s good for business. The fans, all the fans, black, white yellow, whatever, will always pull for the guy who is different if the game has been dominated by a particular race. It’s boring for all fans, not just white fans, to only see black players doing well. That’s why Ginobli was so exciting when he first got hot; a foreign white guy taking it to the hoop. ALL the fans loved him. Black fans wanted to see him play.
Yes, people are the same everywhere you go. They always want something different.
Not just whites. Black people love to watch Steve Nash play basketball…..ya get it?
Unless the rules have changed the foreigners can be no taller than 6′8″ and salaries are/were capped at $50k. And of course there’s a limit on the number of mercenaries that may be employed. Two?
To increase the popularity of the teams (hoops and K League) perhaps they ought to play the nationalist card and compete against the Japanese professionals every few days. It’s no more than a 90 flight.
Forgot the mention that these “high-quality” foreigners aren’t of a quality high enough to play in Europe.
Coach Choe Hui-am is probably correct. Most games are two on two with the Korean players in a supporting role. I often wondered why any Korean would want to watch this type of game. NBA games are easily found on TV. Ban all foreign players and attendance will go up.
This may be considered racist by some, but in the melting pot of America we have all black colleges, beauty contests, and basketball teams.
‘you don’t have to prove your americaness.’
i know; i just put that in there because i know it drives you expats crazy to hear a ‘korean’ talk that way.
there are already limited in the use of the imports, as they are not allowed to play a full game…
this season saw a change from 2 to 3 q’s