Gangling Three-Point Shooter

The role-play is essential in the basketball.

A point guard should carry and pass the ball to make a shooting chance. A shooting guard should possess the accurate field shoot ability, and a small forward should become an all-around shooter regardless of the range. And a power forward should focus on the rebound, and a center should add a point with a high-percentage shoot within the paint zone.

However, such a principle is not working at least in the Korean professional basketball. As it were, the `Total Basketball Era` has come. KCC Coach Shin Sun-Woo declared publicly that he would pursue the total basketball ignoring the traditional role-play.

It is the most remarkable feature in the total basketball that `the big men` such as power forward and center make a long-range shot from downtown.

The Dongyang Orions that had recorded four straight wins until the previous day encountered the most critical moment against the LG Sakers on 15th. With just 55 seconds left, the Dongyang succeeded to reverse a 4-point deficit with a three-point shot of Jeon Hee-Cheol and a paint zone score of Hicks, maintaining the winning streak. In this game, Jeon Hee-Cheol made his team`s best 5 three-point shots.

The SK Bigs-Korea Tender game was also determined by a long-range shot of a big man on 21st. As the Korea Tender, which has been about 10 points behind throughout the game, chased up to three point-deficit in the beginning of fourth quarter, center Johnny McDowell who has kept the paint zone with his teammate center Earl Ike knocked down an awesome three-point shot to widen the score.

The change of 5-year KBL leaguer McDowell clearly shows the trend of the domestic pro-basketball. In 1997-1998 season when he made a KBL debut, McDowell recorded only one three-point shot, playing in the low post. However, he recorded 21 three-point shots for 40 games last season, and already marked 6 shots in the last 9 games this season.

Another three-point shooting big man Erick Eberz of the LG Sakers recorded 2.25 shots per game to rank the 9th place in three-point shooting percentage. And Michael Maddux also ranked the 19th place and `National Center` Seo Jang-Hoon (SK Bigs) has also been fascinated with the field goals.

Chang Jeon jeon@donga.com