The 2022-23 professional basketball championship match between Anyang KGC and Seoul SK was a series that was evaluated as ‘the most fun in history’.
First of all, it’s like that from the flow of the series. The two teams clashed in the championship match last season (SK won), and also met in the East Asian Super League (EASL) final this year (KGC won). It is a rivalry where the battle of egos is tense.
In the first game, SK, who placed third in the regular league, broke expectations and defeated KGC, and then KGC won the second and third games in a row. In the 4th and 5th games, SK counterattacked. In Game 6, KGC won and the match went to Game 7. Game 7 ended in a tie until the 4th quarter, followed by overtime.
KGC won, but SK’s momentum was also not good. The fans’ evaluation that it was ‘interesting’ was proved intact by the spectator record. Six of the seven championship games were sold out after the second leg, and an average of 5,294 spectators were packed. Game 7 recorded the highest number of spectators (5,850) this season.
안전놀이터 There is a reason why this series was uniquely interesting. Both SK and KGC have 2-3 players with good skills who are sure to have one-on-one solving skills. Thanks to this, hit and run battles were possible and the quality of the game was high.
Omari Spellman, Byun Junhyung, and Oh Segeun were holding out at KGC. In SK, Jamil Warney and Kim Seon-hyung showed a surprising performance with an explosive 3-pointer in every game in which Six-Man such as Oh Jae-hyun and Choi Seong-won won the sure ‘one-two punch’.
The scene where KGC’s Filipino player Lens Abando pulled off a block with an admirable physical ability, or where Warney succeeded in a one-on-one attack in seemingly impossible situations stood out. When Kim Seon-hyung scored like a storm in the 7th game, basketball fans burst into exclamation. The scene where Spellman and Byun Jun-hyung, whose play was significantly dampened at the beginning of the series, gritted their teeth and scored after the 6th game, enthused KGC fans.
The fact that the coaches of the two teams emphasized ‘attack forward’ also played a role. SK coach Jeon Hee-cheol said several times, “Basketball is a game that wins only when goals are scored.” KGC coach Kim Sang-sik emphasized, “We will continue to push forward with what we are good at.” The tendency of the players on both sides is a style that revives the momentum the moment an attack breaks out, so it was fun to see the flow change quickly.
Also, unlike last season’s championship series, the fact that both teams had clear weaknesses added to the fun. In SK, Choi Jun-yong, the MVP of last year’s regular season, was out due to injury. Ahn Young-joon, who performed well last season, enlisted. Jeon Seong-hyeon, one of the best shooters in the league, moved to KGC.
SK’s main vacancy was filled by Kim Seon-hyung, who claimed to be a solver and stirred offense. In KGC, young guard Byun Jun-hyung quickly changed the atmosphere with a 3-storey full of guts. The empty seat did not become a hole, but it became an opportunity for fans to ‘rediscover’ and ‘fresh fun’.