“As an attacker, it’s not fouls that can overcome the defense, but skill.”
In an interview with The Korea Times at the KBL Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, the new head of the KBL, Yoo Yoo-hak (61), stressed the need for lenient officiating in fights. “The referee’s calls can help players improve their competitiveness,” he said.
“Unlike the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), which has a lenient whistle for physical fights, the KBL has always applied the rule that a defense foul is called when an attacking player collides with a defender,” said Yoo. ”As a result, when a defender catches the ball, players often look at the referee and protest after inducing a collision without thinking of overcoming it with a good step or a good dribble.” “This is why players don’t practice their individual skills and become vocal when they are defended,” he said, ”and this has led to a decline in competitiveness on the international stage.” “It is abnormal that a call that was not made in FIBA was called in the KBL,” 안전놀이터 Yoo claimed, adding, ”As the head of the refereeing department, I will normalize it.”
While there are concerns about the new calls, Yoo acknowledged that “it’s different from last season, so it’s going to be unfamiliar and there will be mistakes,” but emphasized that “our goal this season is to make fair judgments so that even if there are wrong calls, there will be equally wrong calls for all 10 clubs.”
Yoo, a former star player nicknamed the “computer guard,” had his first professional head coaching job in 1998 at the age of 34 with the Daewoo Zeus after an injury ended his playing career early. He spent the next 23 years as a professional basketball coach. In particular, he led the Ulsan Hyundai Mobis for 18 years, leading the team to the top six times. Yoo was nicknamed “Mansu,” which means “the coach with ten thousand things.
“My seniors have been leading teams since they were younger than me, so I didn’t think of myself as an early manager,” he said, but he laughed, ”Considering how long players play these days, I sometimes feel like I became a manager early.” When asked to give advice to junior managers, he said, “These days, managers have excellent know-how because they have been playing for a long time,” and evaluated that “former star managers are overcoming the burden of failure by playing their own role.”
Yoo announced his retirement as head coach in March of last year, with a record of 724 wins (533 losses) in 1257 games. These are all records in Korean basketball. “I was not sorry to leave because I did a good job and received a lot of love,” Yoo said, adding, ”After retiring, I was staying in the United States to spend time with my family, and I was offered the position of head coach.” “There were stories around me that it was a very abusive position, and I was worried because I felt sorry to go back when I decided to stay with my family,” he said. ”However, I was loved a lot for basketball, and I decided that if there was one last role I could play, I would accept it.”
Yoo said he saw a new side of basketball after becoming an administrator. “I got to see things that I didn’t know when I was a head coach, like how to do physical training with the referees, and where each referee should stand during the game,” he said. ”Unlike when I started a new season as a head coach, I can feel a new excitement for the start of professional basketball.”
Yoo is remembered as a coach who often protested refereeing decisions on the court. “I didn’t do it often, but when I did, I did it strongly, so I didn’t protest much,” he said, but laughed, ”I understand that coaches protest, so I plan to give technical fouls with the same standard.”
