'How come it's a big match?' DB-Sono's Face-to-Face Reasons to Get Out of the Aftermath of the Unprecedented Situation During the Break

Nov 27, 2024

DB head coach Kim Joo-sung is protesting the decision in a game against Seoul SK on the 12th. Photo courtesy =KBL

'Do we have to meet?'

While the regular league of the "2024-2025 KCC Professional Basketball" has just resumed after the A-match break, a match that will attract special attention came out. It is a match between Wonju DB and Goyang Sono at Wonju Gymnasium on the 28th. Coincidentally, the two teams went into labor during the last break, being at the center of a big issue for reasons outside the game.

DB was disciplined en masse at the Korea Basketball Federation (KBL) Finance Committee held on the 16th. Head coach Kim Joo-sung (45) is fined 700,000 won for slanderous KBL, and general manager Kwon Soon-cheol and secretary general Lee Heung-seop are fined 500,000 won for entering the control area without permission and remaining on the court after the game. It was a disciplinary action that resulted from a strong protest against the decision in the home game (80:88 loss) against the SK Wyverns in Seoul on the 12th. Looking back on the situation at the time, DB Kim Si-rae hit SK Jamil Warney while rebounding at the end of the fourth quarter, but the whistle was not called. After that, SK won by widening the gap with a three-point shot. If it weren't for the misjudgment, we wouldn't know how the game would have changed. Water bottles flew in from the stands, and manager Kim was sent off, making it a virtual mess. Immediately after the SK match, DB sent an official letter to KBL to request the exclusion of a specific referee.

After the SK match held on the 12th, DB secretariat officials are protesting the referee. Photo courtesy =KBL

On top of that, Lee Sun- Albano was fined 700,000 won by the same financial committee for expressing dissatisfaction with the decision after the Daegu Korea Gas Corporation match on the 14th. This situation stems from distrust caused by 'hard call (judgment that allows a certain level of physical struggle)' which has caused fierce controversy this season. Even so, complaints have been accumulated from each team since the beginning of the season, which exploded in DB's game just before the break.

What the surrounding basketball community pays attention to here is that the DB is a club of the president of the federation. The DB Group, the parent company of the DB club, has been in charge of the KBL governor since this year in accordance with the '10 club president rotation system'. It is the first time that the president's club has been in direct confrontation with the federation, making an unprecedented demand for exclusion of referees and being disciplined in large numbers for judgment protests.

Since 2018, while Hyundai Mobis and KCC have been presidents of the circular system, related clubs have never been in such confrontation. The misjudgment is bound to happen all the time, and I had to put up with it because it was the president's club. Otherwise, it would be like `spitting on my face.'

Director Kim Tae-sul Sono during the Wonju DB period. Photo courtesy =KBL

Kim Tae-sul's retirement ceremony in 2021. Photo courtesy =KBL

Sono also suffered as much as DB. Coach Kim Seung-ki voluntarily resigned (22nd) due to the so-called 'locker room towel assault' incident, and two days later, coach Kim Tae-sul (40) was appointed as a successor. In the process, it was noisy enough to occupy the issue of the basketball board during the break. As player A, who was hit by a towel, left the team and the legal response increased the impact, and Sono's internal disciplinary action did not work, the club first asked the KBL to hold a financial committee on the coach. In the end, it seemed to be settled by the resignation of head coach Kim, but there is a heated debate on the fan bulletin board over the appointment of him as if he was waiting for a new coach with no coaching experience, and whether it was necessary to raise the case like this given the seriousness of the action due to the nature of the sports world.

While player A, who returned to the team after the resignation of the former coach, has emerged as a concern about whether he will play normally in the future, the debut of the new coach Kim Tae-sul has also attracted extraordinary attention. Coach Kim Tae-sul last retired from his career in DB from 2019 to 2021. At the time, Kim Joo-sung was a coach. In addition, the two are alumni of Dong-A High School in Busan. For head coach Kim Tae-sul, he should make his debut against his former team in a priest-senior-junior match. On top of that, it must be proved that the team quickly shook up the chaotic team atmosphere by overcoming the concerns around it that it was a "first time". As such, it is expected that it will be a "big match" that will inevitably attract the attention of fans watching.

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'How come it's a big match?' DB-Sono's Face-to-Face Reasons to Get Out of the Aftermath of the Unprecedented Situation During the Break

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