Yang Hee-jong, who announced his retirement after the end of this season, did not hide his greed for a combined championship.메이저사이트
On the 22nd, news that would surprise basketball fans was suddenly delivered. Anyang KGC franchise star and captain Yang Hee-jong announced his retirement after the season. Wearing the uniform of KT&G, the predecessor of KGC, in the 1st round and 3rd place in the 2007 rookie draft, he left the court he was familiar with at the end of the 2022-2023 season.
In a phone call with this magazine, Yang Hee-jong said, “Actually, it wasn’t sudden. He has been talking about retirement with his family since last season. He pondered over when to start, and made a decision as he entered this season. It was about a month or two before he decided to retire,” he said.
“Most of them have a retirement ceremony before the opening of the next season, don’t they? Personally, it was the opening game, but I didn’t want to downgrade the atmosphere with the retirement ceremony. So, if I were to retire, I had the thought that I would like to finish this season. Coincidentally, the secretariat had the same idea, and the retirement ceremony was held at the last home game of the regular league this season.”
Most of the fans and officials are curious about Yang Hee-jong’s retirement. This is because he is showing a performance that does not rust even though he is 40 years old in Korea this year. This season, Yang Hee-jong played an average of 11 minutes and 1 second in 44 regular league games, recording 2.6 points and 1.6 rebounds. In particular, he energized the team with defense and hustle play that were not revealed in his record.
“During season 2, I suffered from plantar fasciitis. This season, my condition has improved, so I think my performance is better than before. Our team was not selected as a candidate for the championship, but the players are so good that we are dominating first place. I decided to retire because I thought that if I retired with good grades, there would be no player who would retire happier than me. The decisive reason is that there are juniors who cannot run because they are overshadowed by me. If I retire a season or two early, it will be a valuable time for those players. I thought it would be better to leave as soon as possible for the sake of my juniors.” Yang Hee-jong said.
Currently, KGC is in the lead with 33 wins and 12 losses. The odds of winning the regular season are very high. After the end of the season, captain Yang Hee-jong retires, so it is expected that the battle for the unified championship will burn even more.
Yang Hee-jong said, “I don’t think the decision to retire would have been easy if the team hadn’t had the right to win. I was getting closer and closer to winning, and I was able to make a decision because I was confident. I want to finish this season without regret by winning the combined championship. I also want to say thank you to the fans who have supported me so far,” he said, expressing his determination for the rest of the season.