"I Would Like To Call It Quits“

Orions Head coach Kim confessed he was deeply intoxicated the other night. Also, he started to take smokes, which he abstained from during interviews.

"It`s almost getting to the point where I can`t take it anymore,” he said. “It`s been a long time since fair judgment has ruled the court. All I have left is to contest."

Coach Kim said that he could never accept the third round loss. He indicated two examples of apparent false calls by the referees. The first one explained the game against LG in the fourth quarter when the referees preceded the game, even though LG`s Thomas stepped in the end zone with the ball. The second was the cylinder rule violation call on Lazor`s tip in shot of Orions. These two situations happened when the team was in a slugfest with the opponents as the calls eventually turned against the Orions.

As the issue was heating up, the chairman of the referee committee for the KBL (Korea Basketball League) commented, "I call it one sense of damage to a particular referee. It`s a pity that one can`t accept clear calls." But most of the fans watching the game approved it to be a misjudgment.

"Why does a respected team have to continuously suffer from damages? If this treatment would have been in the first year, I would be well mortified, but this is just going for straight years."

The Orions also had to suffer from disadvantages from the match against TG Sambo in last year’s fifth round championships. The team had to face a ridiculous situation when the team was leading 76-73 with a minute to go and the time clock suddenly stopped for 15 seconds to give the opponent the chance to tie the match and eventually win in overtime. The team recorded two wins and two losses until the fourth round, and lost consecutive fifth and sixth games to give up the dream of taking the championship. Coach Kim was resolute by saying "I`m not going to let this slip as we have been treated almost the same situation in the playoffs and we have strived so hard."

This year’s pro-basketball league had been shaken by a stir of forfeited games and shameful conduct including manipulating records. The situation that came up during the playoffs showed another bad misfortune, which revealed the quality of the referees.

"The only way to apologize to the fans is conduct for the good of the game. If we go on like this, our league would collapse. We should never forget that the eyes of the fans are watching us," commented coach Kim.

We could actually see the presence of the Korean basketball league in the weary expression of head coach Kim.

Won-Hong Lee bluesky@donga.com