Correspondent Choi Song-ah and Lee Ui-jin = “My son likes to play basketball with me. That’s why I continue to play basketball even after he retires. When I win, my son gets upset and ‘dramatically’ loses, so my showmanship is increasing.”
Yang Hee-jong (39), who gave up the title of ‘professional basketball player’ after the recent championship match, smiled like a ‘natural person’.
A player representing the defense of Anyang KGC Ginseng Corporation and a ‘captain’, he ended his career as a player with the team’s victory in the championship match against Seoul SK, which ended on the 7th of this month.
Yang Hee-jong, who we met on the 17th at the Anyang Gymnasium, where the ’11’ he wore was clearly left as the club’s only permanent number, seemed that the afterglow of the last moment as a player had not completely gone yet.
“I spend time with media interviews and childcare. I have occasional drinks, and even though my body is tired, I sleep in comfortably and lead a leisurely life. Even though it’s been two weeks, I keep recalling my memories through interviews, so the championship match ended the day before yesterday. It seems.”
Yang Hee-jong, who was nominated by Anyang KT&G as the third overall pick in the rookie draft in February 2007, is a ‘one-club man’ who played only in one team until the 2022-2023 season, excluding military service.
He appeared in 618 regular league games, averaging 6 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.
Although the record revealed by his numbers was not flashy,
Since 2014, he has been the captain and has been imprinted in the minds of fans as a decisive goal at an important moment.
In the 2011-2012 season Wonju Dongbu and the 6th round of the championship match, he scored the final goal 9 seconds before the end of the game, which was 64-64, and in the 6th round of the championship match with Seoul Samsung in the 2016-2017 season, he had an amazing shooting sense that put 8 out of 9 3-point shots. led the team to victory. Including this, Ginseng Corporation won four championships while he was running.
He also played an active role as a national representative, contributing to winning the gold medal in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
Afterwards, Ginseng Corporation entered the playoffs with the slogan of ‘Last Defense’, which expressed the symbolism of Yang Hee-jong, and presented him with a dramatic and splendid finale.
On March 26, when Yang Hee-jong’s retirement ceremony was held, Ginseng Corporation defeated DB in the homeroom and confirmed the 1st place in the regular league. raised
“I can rest after the championship game is over, but since Game 7 was not enough, I went to overtime, so I thought to myself, ‘It’s too hard to retire.
Yang Hee-jong said, “I can’t write a drama like this, but it was so beautiful. I heard a lot of people around me saying, ‘You really have everything. What did you do in your previous life? It’s luck.'” It is thanks to the juniors who ran to the end for hyung. In many ways, the beats matched well,” he laughed.
Basketball, which started out because he was tall in elementary school, gave him a ‘goal’ every time in his life.
While building friendships with Kim Tae-sul (current commentator) whom he met in high school, he made a promise to ‘go to Yonsei University together’, later a promise to ‘wear the Taegeuk mark’, and achieved his dream of ‘let’s win’ after coming to the pros.
Yang Hee-jong said,토토사이트 “I also wanted to score a lot or be in the spotlight, but basketball is a team sport, so I thought harmony was necessary to become a strong team.” hit,” he recalled.
He said, “There were many difficult times. There were times when I felt sorry for being criticized by fans or because family members and acquaintances were upset by bad comments. I wondered if I was playing basketball for nothing.” “he said.
It is one of the achievements of Yang Hee-jong’s basketball life that he has endured ups and downs and established himself as a support for the team and contributed to cultivating a unique culture.
“After winning once, I was greedy to keep getting better results. When I was younger, I was much more ‘strong’ than I am now, so I criticized my juniors more, but as time passed, I think we developed trust and bonded with each other. ( Oh) Se-geun had a lot of trouble, especially meeting the ‘older brother with a bad personality’.”
In recent years, ‘
“When you’re happy, you congratulate and give gifts, and when you’re sad, you feel sad and comfort together, isn’t that what family is like?”
Yang Hee-jong added, “I don’t think the current frame will be broken easily no matter who comes to this team now.”
Yang Hee-jong, who was unable to play due to a shoulder injury, stepped on the court with 3.4 seconds left after a close match that lasted from the final game 7 of the championship decision to overtime, representing the atmosphere of Ginseng Corporation.
Having already shed tears of emotion on the bench at the fighting spirit of his juniors, he said that this playoff was to some extent a time spent with the ‘leader’s heart’.
Yang Hee-jong confessed, “When I was playing without thinking as a player, my body reacted on its own by focusing only on the opponent or the game, but looking from the outside, I was conscious of the flow of the game and the opponent and had to talk to the coaches.
He said, “The coaches and coaches wanted to know how to make every game so intense from 54 regular league games to the playoffs. I felt respected and great.”
He continued, “I used to say that the best moment in my career was ‘the first win’, but it changed while playing this championship game.”
Ginseng Corporation coach Kim Sang-sik said, “In the process of winning the championship, the players suffered a lot together and it was a great source of strength. In particular, Hee-jong talked to me a lot and gave a lot of opinions, which was helpful in terms of defense patterns.” I would have, but I want to tell you that you worked hard.”
As I spent 16 years at the same club without changing my hometown, my feelings toward the fans are special.
Yang Hui-jong said, “Our fans and players got along well and had something sticky. Especially during the championship game in Seoul, the players made an atmosphere that was not like an expedition, so the players played really hard.”
When asked, “Would you choose to become a basketball player even if you were born again?”, he immediately said, “What are you talking about? I have to play baseball.”
“I want to remain as a player who was the best with passion. I want to be remembered as a player who did his best in the present without leaving any regrets about the past.”
Yang Hee-jong, who said he started preparing to move to the United States in earnest, plans to open the ‘second act of basketball life’ as a coach after experiencing advanced basketball.
“I think that being a coach is the best position you can rise to as a player. Of course, you will be cursed and stressed, but I think the pleasure and sense of achievement you get when you achieve your desired picture is irreplaceable.