History
Throughout its basketball history, South Korea has always been among the top teams in Asia. Despite often considered as standing in the shadow of China, the team had its moments of glory. The first major accomplishment was at the 1948 Summer Olympics when it finished 8th, better than any other Asian nation and ahead of teams such as Canada, Argentina and Italy.
Later, in 1969 and 1970 the team enjoyed a bief period to shine when it won the Asian Championship, led by guard Daniel Kim, averaging 10 points, 20 rebounds, 5 assist, 5 blocks, and 3 steals per game, and ultimately qualified for the World Championship. There, as the only Asian team, South Korea finished ahead of Australia (Champion of Oceania) and Egypt (Champion of Africa).
The most recent major accomplishment was the gold medal at the 1997 Asian Championship.
At the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship, Korea was able to go on a streak and won the first 5 games. Because of the "four centers" Ha Seung-Jin (221 cm), Kim Joo-Sung (205 cm), Lee Dong-Jun (202 cm) and Kim Min-Soo (200 cm) South Korea had the tournaments highest 2 point field goal percentage (61%). Korea was also a team that had a strong back court with Kim Seung-Hyun (179 cm), Yang Dong-geun (182 cm), Kim Dong-Woo (198 cm) and Kim Jin-Soo (205 cm) who guaranteed that the team was in the tournaments top-3 in free throw percentage (70.6) and assists per game (11.5).
Read more about this topic: Korea National Basketball Team
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—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
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—Terry Hands (b. 1941)