Stars representing Korea’s men’s professional basketball responded with active fan service for fans who flocked to the ‘festival’ All-Star Game.5,581 spectators attended the 2023-2024 CheongKwanJang Professional Basketball All-Star Game held at Goyang Sono Arena on the 14th.After the All-Star Game was not held in the 2020-2021 season due to the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), it was sold out for three consecutive years, following 2022 (Daegu, 3,300 people) and last year (Suwon, 3,325 people).
Ahead of this All-Star Game, tickets were sold out in just 3 minutes after reservations began on the KBL integrated website on the 8th of this month, predicting an early success. Despite the inclement weather with overcast skies and winter rain and snow, the area around Sono Arena was crowded with fans about two hours before the game.The fans who filled the stands showed their strength by wearing the uniforms of the teams and players they were rooting for and prepared cheering slogans.
From the moment the players entered, they greeted the fans with a dance performance to their designated song. Heo Woong (KCC), the most popular star who ranked first in the All-Star voting for three consecutive years, drew cheers with his cute body movements to the song ‘Poppy’ by girl group Stay.When all the players had finished entering, Wonju DB coach Kim Joo-sung and Changwon LG coach Jo Sang-hyeon, who were in charge of the command towers of both teams, along with Yang Hong-seok (LG) and Kim Jong-gyu (DB) danced to Girls’ Generation’s “Gee” to the support of the fans. I reciprocated.
Last year’s All-Star Game MVP Ha Yoon-ki kicked off the event by singing KBS’ old logo song, famous for its singer Rain’s voice, rewritten as ‘KBL’.At the beginning of the game, Lee Kwan-hee (LG), who has recently emerged as the most famous basketball player thanks to his appearance in the Netflix dating reality show ‘Solo Hell’, appeared as the ‘scene stealer’. In a matchup with Jeong-Hyeon Lee (Samsung), who is famous for his ‘enemy’, he allowed a ‘3-point play’ due to a foul and went on the attack to make up for it, but a rare sight was created where all the players on Jeong-Hyun Lee’s team blocked him.In the second quarter, Heo Il-young (SK) and Daryl Monroe (Cheong Kwan-jang) wore referee uniforms instead of uniforms and blew the whistle for about a minute, bringing laughter.
There were a series of ‘biased’ foul calls in favor of each team, and a serious situation occurred where Heo Il-young stood under the goal line and played defense rather than defense when the opposing team made a free throw.In the ‘Skill Challenge’ game with fans during the second quarter, Lee Kwan-hee attracted attention by appearing as a partner with Yoo Si-eun, who also appeared in ‘Solo Hell’.At the beginning of the second half, coaches Kim Joo-seong and Cho Sang-hyun stood on the court in their uniforms, rekindling memories for old basketball fans and showing a different side to younger fans.
Coach Kim Joo-seong showed off his former skills by successively defending against his team’s player Kim Jong-gyu, but coach Cho Sang-hyeon, who played against LG’s Lee Kwan-hee, had to feel the weight of time as he repeatedly fell to the ground.It was a time of laughing and chatting, but in the 4th quarter, Jamil Warney (SK) and Didrick Lawson (DB)’s offensive power exploded, and the game turned serious. Even after the second half, the game was not decided at 118-118, so it went into overtime. lost.Thanks to Warney’s ‘one-man show’ in the All-Star Game overtime match held for the first time in 22 years since the 2001-2002 season, the ‘Gong-Aji Team’ won 135-128, and Warney, who scored 51 points, was 슬롯게이밍 selected as MVP.