It is the so-called champ game to watch again. This is the championship match between Anyang KGC and Seoul SK in the ‘2022-2023 SKT A-Dot Professional Basketball’, which begins on the 25th in a 7-out-of-4 best-of-seven competition.
The two teams clashed in the championship game last season. At that time, SK became the unified champion with 4 wins and 1 loss. Watching the championship match again will not reduce interest.
No matter what, the point that draws attention in this championship match is the confrontation between the ‘game rulers’. KGC Byun Jun-hyung and Omari Spellman seek revenge against SK Kim Seon-hyung and Jamil Warney, who swept the domestic and foreign MVP awards at the regular league awards ceremony. Even after winning the regular league, Byun Jun-hyung and Spellman, who were pushed out of the MVP competition, are expected to ignite the matchup by coincidentally overlapping positions with Kim Seon-hyung and Warney. It’s all the more so since we couldn’t separate the superiority and inferiority with 3 wins and 3 losses in the regular league.
In addition to the main interests revealed, the side observation points are also quite interesting. First of all, the two teams met again from a different position than last season. Last year, SK ranked 1st in the regular league and KGC ranked 3rd in the championship match, and this season, on the contrary, KGC 1st and SK 3rd.
Here, the pride confrontation between the coaches of the two teams, who are senior and junior at Korea University, draws attention. SK coach Jeon Hee-cheol achieved the first integrated championship last season as a rookie command tower. Taking over the baton, KGC coach Kim Sang-shik aims for a unified championship in his first season. Looking at the statistics of previous championship games, when the regular league first place and third place faced each other, the probability of winning the first place was 70%, and considering the cycle, it is interesting to see if coach Kim, who has a high probability, will laugh.
Also, the two coaches will have their first PO match as leaders. Each of them went through a long career as a coach and acting manager in different teams, but they had never met at the PO. I met him once when I was an active player.
In the 1997 Korea Basketball League (KBL) memorable invitational league, ‘FILA Cup 97 Professional Basketball’ 6th PO, coach Kim met with the former coach of Dongyang Orions in Daegu as a member of Nasan Flamence in Gwangju. At the time, the former manager’s Orions won 4 wins and 1 loss (at the time, 4 best of 7 matches). After that, there was nothing to meet at the PO until director Kim retired from Anyang SBS in 2003. After transforming into a leader, attention is focused on whether senior coach Kim, who has been trained through a tough process, will finally surpass the junior coach who has been running on the solid road since his coaching days.
The unusual challenge of Bae Byung-jun (KGC) is also an interesting factor. Bae Byeong-jun, who is running a new heyday by filling the vacancy of Jeon Seong-hyeon (Goyang Carrot) at KGC this season, is the first Korean player to challenge another team for the second consecutive year. There were only two foreign players, Jackie Jones (Jeonju KCC → SK) and Chris Daniels (KCC → KGC), when he changed his team and became the champion. Bae Byeong-jun, who moved from LG to KGC in 2018, moved to SK to get more opportunities to play after the 2019-2020 season. After enjoying his first championship in his second season at SK, he returned as Jeon Seong-hyun’s replacement and got a chance to win consecutive championships.카지노
Moreover, Bae Byeong-joon challenges a unique ‘couple championship record’ with Go A-ra (Woori Bank), a women’s professional basketball player who promised to marry. Go Ara enjoyed a combined victory in the Women’s Professional Basketball League (WKBL) this year. If Bae Byung-joon succeeds, an unprecedented record will be created for the first time in professional sports, ‘the combined championship with a married couple in the same season’.
I’m also curious about the direction of the infinite run ‘Chicken Game’. KGC ran fast by winning the ‘Wire to Wire’ in the regular league. SK is on a winning streak with a total of 15 consecutive wins, including 9 wins in the regular 6th round, sweeps (6 wins in a row) in the POs of the 6th and 4th rounds. In the end, the infinite run of the two must come out on the one that gets the brakes in this championship match. So it’s more fun to watch.