Tag: basketball

Here is another example of free agency coming to international sports:

South Korea’s U.S. born basketball player, Ricardo Ratliffe, on Thursday rued a lack of team effort in his side’s disappointing loss against Iran at the 18th Asian Games.

South Korea lost its title defense bid after losing to Iran 80-68 in the men’s basketball semifinal match at the 18th Asian Games at Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Istora arena in Jakarta.

Ratliffe, whose Korean name is Ra Gun-ah, was the only South Korean player who stood up against Iranians. He had a game-high 37 points and 12 rebounds, but his superb performance wasn’t enough to see South Korea through to the final.

“We just played terrible,” Ratliffe said of his team’s performance. “We didn’t play well together. That’s all.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This photo shows an inter-Korean basketball friendly underway at Ryugyong Chung Ju-yung Gymnasium in Pyongyang on July 4, 2018. (Yonhap)

Kim Jong-un should have invited Dennis Rodman to attend this:

South and North Korean men’s and women’s basket ball teams will play goodwill matches today and Thursday in Pyongyang, possibly with the North’s leader Kim Jong-un attending.

The “Unification Basketball Competition” is the fourth of its kind and is being held for the first time in 15 years since the last games were played in 2003. The Koreas agreed to schedule the event at a meeting on sports cooperation last month.

A 101 member delegation departed for Pyongyang Tuesday, led by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon. The delegation includes 50 basketball players, government officials, reporters and a broadcasting team.

“The PyeongChang Winter Olympics became the foundation of peace on the Korean Peninsula, so I hope that the Pyongyang unification basketball competition serves as an occasion to further develop peace on the peninsula,” Cho told reporters before departure.

The delegation headed to Pyongyang Sunan International Airport from Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, via an air force transport aircraft, given international sanctions on North Korea.

This is the first time for the unification minister to visit Pyongyang in 11 years. His last visit was in 2007 as a presidential secretary.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder what the cost of the “hotel bills” are that South Korea will have to pay to North Korea to play these games?

The free agency in international sporting competitions continues to grow:

An American forward is set to play for South Korea men’s national basketball team, having completed the naturalization process on Monday.

Ricardo Ratliffe, who plays for the Seoul Samsung Thunders in the Korean Basketball League (KBL), passed his citizenship interview with the Ministry of Justice for special naturalization in the area of sports. He will be now eligible to play for the national team.

Ratliffe, a Virginia native, is considered one of the top foreign players in the KBL. The 28-year-old won the league championship in three consecutive seasons with Ulsan Mobis Phoebus from 2012 to 2015, before moving to the Thunders.

For the last six seasons, Ratliffe averaged 18.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. He also won the KBL’s top foreign player award twice.

Ratliffe is the fourth foreign basketball player to earn South Korean citizenship through the special naturalization process, following Moon Tae-young, Moon Tae-jong and Kim Han-byeol. However, since the previous players all had South Korean mothers, Ratliffe is the first naturalized player not of Korean descent  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The unofficial US ambassador to North Korea, Dennis Rodman now is advocating for a basketball game to be played between North Korea and the US territory of Guam:

Dennis Rodman plans to organize a basketball game between North Korea and the U.S. territory of Guam, the retired basketball star said Monday, as he seeks to personally mitigate a dangerous war of words between Washington and the isolated, nuclear-armed state.

“We thought, ‘This would be awesome!’” Rodman said in an interview in Beijing, his third stop on a “humanitarian tour” of Asia to promote peace between the U.S. and North Korea. “The people in Guam are all about it. They love it. You get a team from North Korea, get these guys from Pyongyang. Play it in Beijing.”

Guam’s national basketball team’s head coach, E.J. Calvo, said in an email that “this possible game would be a great opportunity.”

“We hope to inspire our young players and with something like this, the positive impact could be much greater,” he wrote.  [LA Times]

You can read more at the link, but like I have said about efforts to get North Korea to participate in the Olympics, why is sports diplomacy being used with North Korea, but not when Apartheid South Africa existed?  During its existence Apartheid South Africa was shunned from most international sporting competitions.  The Kim regime has a far worse human rights record than Apartheid South Africa ever had and are arguably the greatest threat to world peace today and yet people are begging the North Koreans to participate in international sporting events.

Just like Apartheid South Africa, the Kim regime should be shunned from international sporting events not championed to participate in them.

It seems to me that if foreign players are banned in the Women’s Korean Basketball League it may give Korean women more playing time, but they will lose the benefit of playing against top foreign talent.  This could ultimately cause a reduction in competitiveness for Korean women when competing in international basketball competitions:

Coaches from the six teams of the Women’s Korean Basketball League (WKBL) want to gradually abolish the policy allowing foreign players in the league.

Each team was allowed two foreign players, but only one could play until the league opted for a new policy allowing two foreign players to play simultaneously in the third quarter for the upcoming season.

The revised policy aimed to increase the league’s average score.

But some teams were concerned that they would be at a disadvantage if a foreign player was injured or if they had only one foreign player.

Yongin Samsung Blue Minx lost to KB Stars on Nov. 18, without leading scorer Alyssa Thomas, while KB’s Damiris Dantas finished with a game high 28 points and 14 rebounds.

“At the coaches meeting, we talked about discarding the policy about foreigners,” said KEB Hanabank coach Lee Hwan-woo. “We can give Korean players more opportunity to play and use the budget used for foreign players to expand the base of women’s basketball.”

“We do not have a Korean ‘big man’ because we do not have many good Korean players,” said We Seong-woo, a coach form Woori Bank Wibee.
“I think it would be right to diminish the proportion of foreigner players slowly and then abolishing the policy.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Steph Curry just got to experience what it feels like to be on a Korean variety show:

Steph Curry is a man of many talents—he’s arguably the best shooter in NBA history, he’s a two-time World Champion and he’s a damn good golfer.

Brother Seth isn’t too shabby of a player himself, but even the mighty Curry brothers are no match for giant inflatables. Particularly not when the basket the Currys are shooting on is literally spinning, while the other side gets a hoop that’s more than twice regulation size.

The Currys faced these monumental odds on a Korean variety show, where they played against a team of Korean comedians.  [Sports Illustrated via a reader tip]

You can read more at the link and see the videos from the show below:

Two-time National Basketball Association (NBA) MVP Stephen Curry (C) speaks during a meeting with his South Korean fans in Seoul on July 28, 2017. (Yonhap)