Korea’s 1st Female Basketball Referee

Lee Hyun-jeong (aged 26, photo), a women’s basketball referee, is challenging herself and taking an uncharted road: she has applied to become the first female referee for Korean men’s pro basketball.

She was the only woman who submitted an application to the Korean Basketball League (KBL) for a referee position last month, and made it to the group of nine applicants who passed the resume inspection. Lee has been receiving referee training since early July as the only woman in the group, and will be taking practical, physical, and written tests this week.

“I don’t want to receive special treatment because I’m a woman. I want to pass the tests fairly,” she said.

Influenced by her father, Lee Deok-hee (aged 53), who was a former basketball player at Shinil High School and Sungkyunkwan University, Lee Hyun-jeong began playing basketball as a fifth grader at Baeksan Elementary School, Geumcheon-gu, Seoul. After graduating from Dongil Girls’ Middle School and Commercial School, she, 174 centimeters tall, played the forward position. She joined the Hankook Cosmetics team in 1998, but transferred to Shinsegae, as her team was dissolved in only three months. Late that year, however, she showed signs of arrhythmia out of the blue and retired.

Because Lee couldn’t give up basketball, she took a referee class offered by the Korean Basketball Association and received a first grade referee certificate. Lee, who has now fully regained her health, is taking on the challenge of becoming the first female referee in men’s basketball.

She decided to meet the new challenge largely due to the will of her late mother who died from cancer this January and had said, “Be a good referee.” So Lee made up her mind to become the “first female referee who always makes fair judgments” in men’s professional basketball rather than in women’s, where female referees are common. It was never an easy challenge for sure, but she worked hard, thinking that her mother would be cheering for her in heaven. Mindful of the tough physical test, she even took a part-time job at a gym in her neighborhood to increase her strength.

Lee has been well received by judges during the KBL referee training for delicate judgment, which is unique to women, and her well-founded knowledge on basketball. Hence, it is highly likely that she’ll be among those who pass the test. KBL’s referees, who have kept their eyes on Lee, spared no compliment, saying, “She comprehends signals and the games so well. She is no less physically strong than her male counterparts as well.” In the case of NBA, two female referees were employed in 1997 for the first time.

Lee is from a basketball family—her father and the three children including Lee have been basketball players. She noted, “In my view, the important virtues required of a referee are subjectivity and confidence. I want to win recognition not as a woman but as a referee.”

Her dream is to blow whistles in big games like the final championship games. Just thinking about it makes her heart throb with excitement.

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com