Trail of the Lion King

Incheon is one of those places that fancies itself as a city but, like Suwon, it’s really just a suburb of Seoul. Nevertheless it does pretty well for sport. The baseball team is one of the best in the country and plays in what is probably my favourite stadium. They have two football teams and one of them,Incheon United, having already got bored with the stadium that was built for the 2002 World Cup, will kick off next season at a new ground.

It’s baseball at this time of year though and so I made the trip to see Incheon ET Land Elephants take on KCC Egis. I was advised that it is pronounced Incheon – ET Land – Elephants and not, as I had been doing, Incheon – ET- Land Elephants. Mind you, either way sounds equally odd to me.

Jen will be starting a new job in Incheon soon, so we thought we would try out the bus that she might use. We caught the 9500 from near to Gangnam Subway Station and an hour later it terminated at Bupyeong Subway Station. This isn’t too far from the Sansam Arena where the Elephants play but it’s a nightmare getting your bearings. The subway is home to an enormous shopping mall and has over thirty exits. The place was packed with people who were filling in their day by wandering aimlessly around for no good reason and getting in the way of people like us who had legitimate business. We quickly gave up trying to find the right direction to walk and just caught a cab instead. It only took about five minutes to get there and cost less than five thousand won.

It's looking less than brand new, so will probably get demolished soon.

There weren’t too many people milling around outside and it took us a while to find the entrance. We bought a couple of tickets from a granny tout for five thousand won apiece. This seemed like a bargain until we saw the one thousand won price on them. I don’t suppose I should complain at paying less than three quid to watch a game, but when I’m paying five times over the odds it seems a bit much. I was a little concerned that we had been sold tickets intended for the under-threes but we got in ok.

We took our seat level with one of the baskets and next to a gang of Korean kids who all seemed to need to go for a piss at the same time. I was just grateful that they hadn’t yet discovered beer.

The game looked like it would be a good one with KCC Egis in fourth place and the home team in fifth. Incheon started the better and although KCC pegged it back a bit in the second quarter the Elephants were ahead at half time by 51 points to 47. At this point we were treated to a dance routine involving three of the cheerleaders and three of Incheon’s new signings. I doubt they will have seen a basketball in the last week or two as they will have been perfecting their dance moves instead.

I'm sure that they once dreamed of the NBA.

The star player for the home side was Moon Tae Jong. He used to be known as Jarod Stevenson and has had a career that seems to have taken in most countries that play the game and probably one or two that don’t. He rattled in thirty one points.

Jarod Stevenson - Incheon Elephants

The foreign player for Incheon was American Herbert Hill. I’d like to think that he’s managed to find an apartment on either Hooker Hill or Homo Hill, just for the confusion it would cause the postman. He did ok too, contributing twenty six points including this crowd-pleasing dunk.

Herbert Hill - Incheon Elephants

KCC were missing their arsey guard Tony Atkins, but still had DeShawn Sims and Ha Seung Jin. Sims had a quiet game but Ha was able to position his 7’3“ frame underneath the basket often enough to score twenty two points.

He took the odd rebound too.

Incheon began the final quarter six points ahead and had plenty of opportunities to make the game safe. KCC should also have done better with the ball and missed a few chances themselves that they would normally have scored. It was as if neither side wanted it and eventually time ran out with Incheon nicking it by two points.

It’s getting closer to the football season with the first games just over a month away now. In six weeks time there will be some baseball pre-season friendlies too. For the time being though it’s still basketball.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last got to a game partly because Jen and I went to Taiwan for the Chinese New Year holiday. Unfortunately they didn’t seem to have any sport going on over there. Not even any horseracing, which surprised me. My fallback plan to hike in the hills around Taipei didnt work either as it rained just about all the time we were there.

We did visit the Taipei National Palace Museum which  contains a load of stuff that the Chinese Nationalists had nicked from China when they fled to Taiwan after Chairman Mao got the top job at home. A lot of the exhibits were a few thousand years old but in fantastic condition. One thing that I did learn is that whilst the olden-days Chinese were great at making vases they were absolutely crap at painting. You’d think that if you can pick up a grain of rice with a pair of chopsticks then you would be able to handle a paintbrush reasonably well. Apparently not though. I doubt that they would be able to poke one another in the eye with any great accuracy.

I’m actually surprised that anybody thought the efforts on show were worth bringing with them and I dread to think what the paintings that they left behind must have been like. I wouldn’t have stuck any of them on my fridge door.

Image reproduced with kind permission of Taipei National Palace Museum

So, with no sport or hiking and the culture dutifully viewed, we spent most of our time wandering around markets or eating and drinking. I’d expected more from the markets. There’s one called Snake Alley where I was keen to try their speciality. Egg and Chips. It wasn’t really but it might as well have been. They had a couple of restaurants with snakes outside but they were intended solely to get us tourists gawping. No way would they be cutting slices off a fifteen foot python. The only bit of gruesomeness that we saw were some recently decapitated turtles, still with the legs moving.

We did see a bloke selling live birds to people so that they could briefly hold them before releasing them. I suspect it’s for good luck or something. One fella bought about twenty quids worth whilst we were watching. I suppose it’s healthier than spending it on beer and fags, although I doubt he’d get much sympathy if he came down with bird flu.

There's a well fed falcon just out of shot.

We spent a fair amount of time in that Taipei 101 skyscaper. Initially for the view, but then mainly because it was hard to find restaurants that were open during the holiday period. It’s an impressive building, especially from the ground.

We didn't use the stairs.

That was it really. Taipei is a scruffy looking place, but in five years time I imagine that it will be like Seoul with coffee-shops every ten yards. I had a good time but that was more down to the company than the surroundings.

We did some hiking when we got back to Seoul, knocking off a bit more of the Bukhansan Dulegil last weekend.  I won’t rattle on about it as I think that once we’ve done the final stretch I’ll devote a post to the entire thing. Suffice to say that it was cold, but good to be out in the fresh air.

Somewhere along Section 16 or 17.

Right, the basketball. I only really went along to get out of the apartment. It’s been as cold as -17 in Seoul  so it’s tempting not to go outside very much. I don’t like being stuck indoors though and as SK play within about fifty yards of exit 8 of Sports Complex subway station, I thought I’d chance the sub-zero temperatures.

I bought some chestnuts and a bottle of water from a stall outside the arena. The water was, of course, frozen solid and remained that way until the game was over.  I ignored the touts for a change and paid twenty thousand won at the ticket office to get a ‘floor’ seat three rows behind the players. That was a bad move as my view was obscured by coaching staff and towel boys. I’d have had a better view from the back row.

Sit down!!

My over-rated seat did give me the opportunity to watch the coaches close up though. It’s similar to football in that you’ve got one main bloke who decides everything and a few others who watch him closely and then mirror his actions. All of the assistant goons had little folders with them that they would occasionally open and read intently before shouting instructions to the players. I suspect that each folder contained nothing more than the following words in large bold capitals,

PASS THE BALL TO THE AMERICAN.

One fella had obviously been given a new folder for Christmas. It was embossed with the words ‘Spalding’ and ‘NBA’ and looked to be made from the skin of an extra-virgin match-issue basketball. I suppose it’s better than getting socks.

"There is no Plan B"

This week’s foreign players were Amal McCaskill for SK Knights and Terrence Leather for Ulsan Mobis Phoebus. I told you all about Mr. McCaskill a couple of weeks ago so I’ll limit myself to a photo this time.

Amal McCaskill - SK Knights

Terry Leather, who despite sounding like the sort of man-made fabric that would give you a nasty rash, is actually a decent player and averages twenty-five points per game. Although I suppose when all of your team-mates have a squad of coaches screaming at them to pass you the ball, it’s got to help.

Terrence Leather - Mobis Phoebus

Terry managed to maintain his average points total in this game and that was enough to help his team to a 94-90 victory. The win kept Mobis Phoebus in sixth place and dropped SK Knights from seventh to eighth. Not that it matters in the slightest, neither of these teams will be anywhere near the play-off places when the season finishes in a month’s time.

I’d intended to walk home after the game, but it was just too cold. I even had to wear my hat and gloves on the subway. Next will probably be a trip to Incheon to see their basketball team take on KCC Egis in a fourth v fifth clash. That one has a bit more at stake so I’ll get a cheap seat to make sure that I have a decent view.

I’d spotted a few banners advertising Goyang Orions the last time I’d been to a football match up there. It confused me a little as I thought that the Orions played in Daegu. Still, a team moving between cities isn’t that uncommon in basketball and so I shouldn’t really have been surprised.

One benefit is that Goyang is a bit closer than Daegu and I was able to take Line Three all the way to it’s final stop, Daewha. It’s the same subway that you go to if you want to watch Goyang KB and the basketball arena is just next to the football stadium, about a hundred yards straight along from exit three.

They probably didn't move this from Daegu.

I had time before the game to have a wander around the football stadium next door. The goalposts were down and the pitch was covered in sheeting to protect it from frost. The running track was available for people to use and a couple of people were clocking up the laps.

They get similar crowds for their matches.

I still had three-quarters of an hour before the basketball started but it was quite chilly so I went in early. It’s a small arena with three tiers. I tried for a courtside seat but apparently they were sold out. I ended up with an eight thousand won ‘free-seating’ ticket which appeared to allow me to sit wherever I fancied in tiers two and three. It didn’t, of course, and a couple of minutes before the game started someone turned up with a ticket for my seat in the middle of the second tier. I had to move upwards to tier three and look down from a distance at all of the empty seats next to the court.

I hadn’t seen Goyang before and so wasn’t familiar with any of the players. Their foreigner is an American forward called Chris Williams. I looked him up afterwards and he seems to have had quite a successful career around the world including spells in Germany, Australia, China and Iran. It’s probably as well that he’s moved on from Tehran as I don’t expect that an American would get too many MVP awards over there these days.

Chris Williams is the one in red.

Goyang also had one of those blokes that qualify to play as a ‘half-Korean’, Daniel Sandrin. He’s the kid brother of the Samsung Thunders player Eric Sandrin who used to play for the Harlem Globetrotters under the nickname ‘Shanghai’’. Baby Shanghai didn’t get much of a run-out though and spent all but seven minutes watching from the bench.

KCC Egis were a bit more of a known quantity. Jen and I had watched them before Christmas in Jeonju and I recognised their American forward, DeShawn Sims. KCC’s half-Korean was guard Tony Atkins. Last time we’d watched him he managed to get ejected from the game for being arsey to one of the refs. This time though he behaved himself.

The real stand-out character for KCC  was 7’3“ centre Ha Seung Jin. He’d made a few appearances in the NBA in the past, once scoring thirteen points in a game for Portland against the LA Lakers. I found it hard to imagine that he could have played at that level unless he was a lot more mobile in those days. In this game he looked more like an out of shape Dad playing with a bunch of ten year olds. He didn’t bother going up for every attack and rarely seemed to pick up a rebound. Despite his height advantage over everyone else he didn’t contest the tip-off at the start either. All he did was stand near the opposition basket and wait for a pass to be looped over the defending players heads. If he managed not to fumble it then it was a fairly guaranteed two points.

He nearly got that rebound.

The first quarter was just about even but in the second quarter KCC left Tony Atkins and Ha Seung Jin on the bench for the first few minutes. Goyang took full advantage and led by sixteen points at one stage before eventually finishing the period 41-33 ahead.

The third quarter belonged overwhelmingly to KCC and they turned the deficit around to take a 62-56 lead. It was Goyang’s turn for a fightback in the final quarter and they eventually regained the lead by a single point with just two and a half minutes remaining. They increased that to three points going into the final minute. Tony Atkins missed a three pointer for KCC and after the subsequent foul Goyang scored a free-throw to extend their lead to four points. That was the way it stayed and Goyang took a 84-81 victory.

The final sporting event of our weekend in Jeonju was a basketball game between KCC Egis and Samsung Thunders. We called in at the Jeonju Arena around lunchtime to buy our tickets, ending up with two behind the basket at 14,000 won each, two rows from the front. The floor seats down the side of the court were already sold out by that time, as were the seats in the next section up. It’s a small arena though so it wouldn’t really have mattered if we had ended up in the back row.

Jeonju Arena

I’d seen Samsung Thunders earlier in the season and it was their Puerto Rican centre, Peter John Ramos, who stood out for them. Not so much for his contribution to the game, but more for his resemblance to the former boxer, Nikolai Valuev. If there is a ‘pairs’ event in that rhythmic gymnastics stuff where they dance with a ribbon, I’d love to see the two of them team up.

It seems I wasnt the only one to be questioning the contribution that Ramos had been making as shortly after the game it was reported that he was going to be released and replaced by somebody more mobile. I was slightly surprised to read that the more mobile replacement, Joe Ira Clark, is actually ten years older than Ramos.

"If we lose this game, you're flying home in Economy"

The overseas player for KCC was a lot more impressive. Deshawn Sims, a twenty-three year old American forward, seemed more than capable of getting up and down the court. I wonder how long he will last in Korea though as KCC is his sixth team in the last year and a half.

Deshawn Sims

The home side are the reigning KBL champions and they looked to be the stronger side, leading 26-18 at the end of the first quarter and maintaining their advantage to finish the first half seven points ahead. I had to go outside at the interval as it was just too hot inside the arena. Nobody was checking tickets on the way back in so if you ever fancy watching half a game of free basketball then Jeonju is the place to do it.

In addition to the one overseas player that each team is allowed, there is also a draft for half-Koreans, players with one Korean and one non-Korean parent. Both these teams had taken up their option with Samsung’s Lee Seung Joon looking like the best player on the court. Lee had briefly played in the NBA before becoming a naturalised Korean. In those days he was known as Eric Sandrin, or at least he was for most of the time. He had a spell with the Harlem Globetrotters in 2005 where in addition to being taught how to spin a ball on his finger whilst fastening his shoelaces, he also learned to answer to the name of  ‘Shanghai’.

Shanghai turns back the clock to his Globetrotter days.

After the break KCC were able to edge further ahead and they began the fourth quarter with the score at 68-57. The final stages saw Ramos spend some time on the bench. It’s unusual for a foreigner not to play the full match, but with the game drifting away it’s possible that Samsung wanted to give a bit of game-time to someone who would still be around the following week. Deshawn Sims ended up on the sidelines too, although in his case it was as a consequence of being fouled-out with a couple of minutes to go.

Chon Tae Poong also left the game early. He had got away with a deliberate charging foul and then trying to start a fight, but kept pushing it and was finally ejected after a comment to one of the referees. He’s another of the naturalised Koreans who got his spot via the ‘half-Korean’ draft and when he played in the US he was known as Tony Atkins. He’s a good point guard, but a bit too ‘Hollywood’ for me, looking in one direction and then passing in another far too often for it to ever fool the defence. I bet he’d have loved to have played for the Harlem Globetrotters, although whether he’d have been happy with a likely Globetotter name of ‘Stroppy Get’, I’m not so sure.

Stroppy Get departs for the dressing room.

The late drama didn’t affect the result though and KCC Egis ran out the clock for an 88-74 victory.

As the football and baseball seasons draw to a close, basketball takes up a bit of the slack. Jen was busy at some conference thing so I had a walk down to the Jamsil Gymnasium by myself to see Samsung Thunders play the team from Changwon, LG Sakers.

There wasn’t a queue at the ticket office, so I ignored the granny touts and ended up with a seven thousand won seat in the third tier. Jamsil Gymnasium is small enough with its thirteen thousand capacity to give you a reasonable view from just about anywhere.

There’s been a change in the regulations for this season and each team is only allowed one foreigner rather than the two that they had last year. It seems a bit of an odd thing to do as the teams were still only permitted to have one non-Korean on court at a time last year, so limiting teams to one foreigner won’t give home-grown players any more opportunities, it just means that the single foreigner is expected to play the full forty minutes. I suppose it reduces the wage bill.

It means though that when selecting your overseas player you need someone who can play the entire game. Last season I’d enjoyed watching Nigel Dixon turning out as one of the Samsung imports, but ‘Big Jelly’ was never going to be the sort of player that would suit the new rules and he’s moved on somewhere new.

The overseas player at Samsung this season is Peter John Ramos, a Puerto Rican bloke who is 7’3″ tall.

That's him, in the blue.

It turns out that Ramos is one of the twenty tallest players ever to play in the NBA. He didn’t play very much in America, possibly because his height looks to be the only thing he has going for him. He’s got a really straight back and doesn’t look as if he’d be flexible enough to bend down and tie his own laces. He seemed a fairly stroppy sort of fella too, sounding off regularly at teammates, refs and anyone else in earshot.

The foreigner for the visiting team, LG Sakers, was Olumide Oyedeji. His name seemed familiar and when I later googled him it turned out that he’d played a season for Orlando Magic nine years ago. I used to go to Florida with my kids quite frequently in those days. I’d take them individually as they each liked doing different things. My daughter was happy for us to ride rollercoasters from the parks opening until closing time, whereas with my son I’d go bass fishing, play a bit of golf or we’d crash go-karts into walls or occasionally each other.

I think that's Bruce Grobbelaar sat behind us.

The one common interest though that both kids had was that they liked to go along and watch Orlando Magic. Olumedeji only played twenty-odd games in his season in Florida and as I can’t be arsed to check the dates of his matches against my holidays, I’ve no way of knowing if I’ve actually seen him play in the NBA. Still, I did recognise his name even if I doubt I could pronounce it.

Olumide Oyedeji - probably Ollie to his mates.

Samsung, wearing the standard corporate Chelsea blue gear, took an early lead and by the end of a one-sided first quarter had extended it to 29-14. I’d been hoping for a closer game, but it looked like it was going to be a rout. Sakers, in white, improved a bit as time went on though and by the time we got to the end of the second quarter they had reduced the deficit to a more respectable eight points.

Two points for Samsung.

You get a twelve minute break at half time and most of it was taken up by a performance from the boy band Shinee. They were very popular, generating near hysteria from the crowd, mostly from the girls. A fair proportion of those watching seemed far more interested in Shinee than they had been in the basketball and were more than happy to delay their trips to the refreshment kiosks until after the dancing had finished and the third quarter was about to start.

Shinee.

LG continued their comeback after the break and at one point reduced the gap to four points before finishing the third quarter 58-52 down. I was rooting for the visitors by this time, as much to see a close game as anything else. The score in the final quarter ebbed and flowed until LG finally drew level with four minutes to go. They went on to take the lead with just ninety seconds left. Four of the Thunders players on the court had four fouls against their names and it looked likely that LG would go on to clinch the game.

I moved down to the second tier at half-time, behind one of the baskets.

Ten seconds later Olumide Oyedeji was fouled out, harshly in my opinion, and that should really have given the home side a reprieve. They didn’t take their chance though and with the Nigerian player cheering on his team from the sidelines, LG managed to extend their lead before eventually running out the clock for an 81-74 victory.

It’s getting towards the start of the football season again with just a week to go until the first round of K-League fixtures. I’d been hoping for a pre-season friendly this weekend but unfortunately didn’t notice one listed anywhere.

Samsung Thunders were at home though and so I thought I might as well watch some basketball. Jamsil gymnasium is about three quarters of an hours walk from my apartment and with the weather having got a bit milder recently I had a wander along.

It was fairly busy outside with a long queue at the ticket office. I saw an old granny tout being moved on by a policeman before finding an even older one who was clutching on to a handful of tickets as if they were Embassy cigarette coupons. I suspect that reference ages me, but when I was a kid one of my Nannas always had a stack of them. She often seemed to have something new in the house, a china dog or a set of drinks coasters, and all of it seemed to have either been won at the bingo or bought with Embassy coupons.

Granny touts outside of the Jamsil Gymnasium

The granny tout and I didn‘t manage the communication very well. Establishing that I wanted one ticket was straightforward enough, but determining the price seemed beyond us. In the end I just opened my wallet and let her pluck one thousand won notes from it until she was happy. I ended up paying 6,000 won for a ticket that had a face value of 3,500 but I wasn’t going to argue with that, particularly as the ticket office queue didn’t seem to be getting any shorter.

I think my ticket was for the second tier, but I decided that I’d watch from a bit higher up where there were plenty of empty seats. I found a spot along the side of the court, close to one of the big screens. The temperature was roasting. It was like being inside a sauna. There rarely seems to be any middle ground in these places, it’s either far too hot or far too cold. Mind you, most of the Koreans around me had kept their coats on. I don‘t know how they managed.

View from the upper tier.

 Both the first two quarters were fairly tight, Samsung edging the first 28-25 and then increasing their lead to 51-43 by the half time interval. The main point of interest was the KCC Egis centre Ha Seung Jin who, depending on your source of information, is either 7’3“ or 7’4“. I don‘t suppose that extra inch makes a lot of difference as to how often he cracks his head when going through a door.

He's the one wearing '0'

Mr. Ha has played in the NBA for Portland and even if he ’only’ measures 7’3“ he is still one of  the tallest twenty players ever to play in the NBA. He is also the only Korean to have played at that level too, which I suspect will make him a bit of a superstar in his home country. He towered over the diminutive Thunders centre, Nigel Dixon, who at a mere 6’9“ could be described as a relative shortarse.

Big Jin v Big Jelly

At half time we had a bit of music with some miming and dancing from a woman who looked older than the granny who had sold me my ticket. It is rare for any Korean women under the age of eighty to have grey hair, so she was either exceptionally daring in doing without the hair dye or was extremely agile for her age. Maybe a bit of both.

Zimmer Frame just out of shot.

Samsung edged the third quarter as well to increase their lead to 77-66. The attendence was announced at 9,700 which seemed about right, with the hall being two-thirds full.

And we'll finish with 'One for the boys'.

The final quarter followed the pattern of the previous three with Samsung outscoring KCC by another three points to run out the winners by 100-86. Whilst the final score was convincing, each quarter had been close and there hadn’t really been a spell where the game had felt one-sided. I enjoyed the battle between Ha Seung Jin and the not-so ’Big Jelly’ and it would be nice to see a repeat in the play-offs.