Ha Yoon-ki (24, 2m3.5cm) of Suwon KT Center for professional basketball emerged as a ‘star among stars’ at the All-Star Game held at the home stadium of his team.
The 2022-23 season professional basketball all-star game held at Suwon KT Sonic Boom Arena on the 15th was a confrontation between ‘Team Heoung’ of Heoung (Jeonju KCC), who ranked first in fan voting, and ‘Team Daesung Lee’ of Daesung Lee (Korea Gas Corporation, Daegu), who ranked second. . The two players became captains and drafted the players to be with them. Kim Sang-shik (Anyang KGC) and Jo Dong-hyeon (Ulsan Hyundai Mobis), who are the 1st and 3rd team commanders in the regular season, took the helm of Team Lee Dae-seong and Team Heo Woong, respectively.
This All-Star Game was held for the first time in Suwon since the first professional basketball All-Star Game was held at Seoul Olympic Gymnasium 2 in 1997. Lee Kwan-hee (Changwon LG) Choi Jun-yong (Seoul SK) Kang Sang-jae (Wonju DB) teamed up with Lee Dae-seong to win 122-117. The highest score difference in the All-Star Game is 26 points (129-103), which the ‘Laguna Dream’ team scored against the ‘Yang Hong-seok Magic’ team in the 2018-19 season.
The Most Valuable Player (MVP) went to Ha Yoon-gi, who recorded 28 points and 4 rebounds. He received 67 of 77 votes in the press poll. After graduating from Korea University, Ha Yoon-gi, who made his professional debut after being nominated by KT as the 2nd overall pick in the 1st round in the 2021 rookie draft, enjoyed the honor of being selected as the professional basketball MVP in his second year. Among KT players, it is the second All-Star Game MVP after Marcus Landry (2018-19 season).
After the game, Ha Yoon-gi, who met with the reporters with the MVP trophy, said, “On a fun day like today, I played with seniors who are good at basketball. His older brothers saw me and said, ‘Let’s try MVP’, and gave me a lot of chances to score. (Choi) Jun-yong hyung and (Lee) Dae-sung hyung visited me a lot. It is more meaningful to receive it at the home stadium of the affiliated team. I think, ‘Did I really get an MVP’. It’s like a dream, and it feels good. I can’t believe it.” He laughed.
Ha Yoon-gi made 9 dunks that day. Colleagues helped Ha Yoon-ki, who is taller, easily try dunk shots by handing him a ‘lob pass’ to catch the ball. Ha Yoon-ki said, “It is true that there were difficult situations once with a lot of passes,” but “Isn’t the All-Star game once a year? It was difficult, but I played hard,” he said. 메이저놀이터
Ha Yun-ki played 30 games this season, playing for an average of 28 minutes and 9 seconds, recording 13.9 points and 6.2 rebounds. He leads KT’s challenge to advance to the playoffs (PO). KT is currently in 7th place. Ha Yun-ki said, “I intend to buy coffee for his teammates with the prize money. I enjoyed playing in the All-Star Game. After returning to his team, he will play seriously. I will work hard to win and show good performance.”
Ha Yoon-gi, who is called ‘Baby Hulk’ because of his great height and elasticity, even won the dunk shot performance award. After sprinting from beyond the half court, he caught the eye with a one-handed dunk and boasted a unique high RBI dunk with an elbow on the rim. In the finals of the dunk shot contest, Lens Abando (KGC) from the Philippines, who received a total of 100 points in the first and second rounds (out of 50 points in both rounds), won.
Ha Yoon-gi, who won the dunk shot contest in the All-Star Game last year, said that although he failed to become the ‘Dunk King’ for two consecutive years, he was not regretful. Ha Yoon-gi said, “In my heart, I had the idea of winning the dunk shot contest for the second year in a row. However, after watching Abando’s dunk, the idea of winning disappeared.”
Heo Woong recorded 7 points and 4 assists in this game. In the three-point shooting contest, he won his first personal victory. Heo Woong, who finished runner-up to Lee Kwan-hee in the All-Star 3-point shooting contest held at the Daegu Gymnasium last year, scored 19 points in the finals of the All-Star Game 3-point shooting contest, beating Kim Gook-chan (15 points, Hyundai Mobis) to win the championship. Heo Woong said, “I am happy to win.”
As expected from the All-Star Game, it entertained the eyes of the fans with many things to see. Before the match, famous rapper Bio performed a celebratory performance, and during halftime, the 6-member dance crew HOOK drew cheers from the fans with a moderate dance. A 3-on-3 basketball match between Filipino players and Korean players, who will be appearing on the domestic stage from this season, was also held.