Old Basketball Stars Talk of Past and Present

Runners-up in the 1979 championships-

The year 1979 is a landmark in the almost century-long history of women’s basketball in Korea. In April of that year, the 8th Basketball World Championship for Women was held in the newly completed Jamsil Gymnasium in Seoul, where the Korean National Team defeated the U.S. 94-82 before a capacity crowd.

While the point guard, captain Kang Hyeon-suk, passed with pinpoint accuracy, the shooting guard, Jeong Mi-ra, effectively startled her opponents with a number of mid-range shots; despite her short stature of only 167cm. Beneath the rim was Park Chan-suk, the best Asian center of her time.

Although Team Korea tied with the Americans 5-1 in wins and losses, it lost the championship title after goal difference was calculated to break the tie. Given that the Koreans lagged far behind their contenders from the West in physique, it was an admirable achievement on their part. It was another golden age in women’s basketball following the 1960s when star center Park Shin-ja was in her heyday.

28 years have past since then, and the three players still play significant roles in the basketball community. Kang Hyeon-suk, 52, is one of the directors of the Korea Basketball Association (KBA), also serving as a match supervisor for the Women’s Korean Basketball League (WKBL); Jeong Mi-ra, 51, is an MBC commentator; and Park Chan-suk, 48, is a WKBL technical coordinator.

Ahead of the league match between Shinhan Bank and Kumho Life, they met at Jangchung Gymnasium. All in jolly moods, they shared a wonderful afternoon chatting of the past and present. As a 36 year old, in a different generation, I felt as if a part of history captured in a black and white photo was being turned into a vivid full-color motion picture, before my very eyes.

Forcing their way through a crowd of male fans-

“Women basketball was very popular in those days. We were the first in the country to attract such vast numbers of fans to basketball arenas. Men would cram in front of the entrance so we used to have hard time forcing our way through,” said Jeong. “Most players had good looks then, not to mention their skills. There were also a lot of players in as many as 12 to 13 teams,” said Kang.

Indeed, the three are still quite attractive. As they were talking, they started to compliment each other.

“Mi-ra always performed at 120%, even though she was short. She was nimble and fast, and had great stamina,” said Kang. “It took me quite a long time to become famous. Compared to me, Hyeon-suk and Chan-suk were stars throughout their entire careers,” responded Jeong. “How could have I been a star if it weren’t for Kang and Jeong?” added Park.

The first of the three to retire from the national team was Kang, in 1980, and Jeong followed in 1982. Park quit after winning the silver medal in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984. Time has past and now they are all married with grown-up children. Their passion for basketball, however, is as intense as ever. As Jeong puts it, they have “married with basketball,” and “the court is their playground.”

Subdivision and female coaches needed-

The topic moved on to the issue of ‘how to reinvigorate women’s basketball?’ In fact, there are only six women’s basketball teams that currently play affront thousand-strong crowds.

“Most of all, we have too fewer teams. We need stars but the number of players is dropping,” said Kang. “It is also problematic that B-grade are retiring too early without having any chance on the court. We need a subdivision system,” argued Jeong. “It is also a problem that there are no female coaches. They say that men do it better, but they haven’t even given us a try. We have the know-how, based on experience, but can’t teach them while the men stick to their vested interests,” complained Park.

They could have kept talking about basketball well into the night. I asked them to excuse me and took some photos. As I asked them to pose with a basketball, Jeong regretfully said, “We could have shown you ourselves playing in the court if we were tipped for this in advance.” Park ran around the court in a light-hearted manner, while Kang took a posture looking rather serious, like the captain she once was.

kimsk@donga.com