Coaches of 10 Basketball Teams Reflect on Excessive Appeals

Various solutions are being considered in the pro basketball league, where a forfeited game caused a sensation. The heads of 10 teams in the pro league opened a director’s meeting and discussed a counter plan at the KBL center, Nonhyun-dong, Kangnam, Seoul on December 24 for the first time since the incident happened. Ahead of the discussion, the president of KBL, Kim Young-ki, told directors that he would resign and left.

It was known that the heads of 10 teams asked Kim to keep his position until the end of season because the season is still going on. Also, they agreed that the disciplinary punishment for the coach of SBS, Lee Sang-beom, and the referee staffs was very severe.

Meanwhile, the coaches of 10 teams issued a statement that day saying that they will reflect among themselves on the excessive appeals.

The coach of Samsung, Kim Dong-kwang, who is the representative of the coaches’ association, and the coach of TG Sambo, last year’s champion, Jeon Chang-jin, promised, “Sometimes we are disadvantaged by inconsistent judging, but we disregarded basketball fans when we overreacted so much. We will control ourselves and not appeal, and show great play.”

The coaches’ association decided bow to referees and opposing coaching staffs before and after the game in order to promise clean play after December 25. Referee staffs, shocked by the unprecedented heavy punishment, had a meeting and decided to send a letter of appeal to request the alleviation of the punishment that day.

Some of referees resisted the punishment saying that it was a witch-hunt, and they are not refusing to do a boycott.

Ryu Hee-hyung, the chairman of referee committee, mentioned, “We should prevent it from becoming a catastrophe whatever it takes. It will be hard to assign only 18 referees without disciplining three referees, but I believe that doing our best is the only way to recover our impaired honor.”

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com