The South Korea¡¯s tallest basketball player, Ha Seung-Jin (7'4"-C-1985), is planning to declare himself available for the NBA Draft, but only in 2004. The Korean teenager, in fact, will turn 18 only after the deadline to declare for the 2003. Ha is currently playing his third year in Samil Commercial High School, in Seoul, and his team has an open winning streak of 22 consecutive wins. No surprise, given that not only the kid is big, but he is also very strong, and has yet the right size (around 300 lbs) to bang with NBA big men. Ha Seung-Jin current stats are 27 ppg and 10 rpg with a 70% free-throw accuracy, which is an interesting "optional" for a big man. 7'4" 300lbs Big man.He could possibly grow another inch or two and come close to rivalling China's Yao.
ONLY 10 RPG AGAINST KOREAN HIGH SCHOOL KIDS?!?! I somehow doubt that this guy is anywhere CLOSE to being ready.
What you must remember with HS stats, especially foreign HS, is that there is no shot clock. Meaning that there are less shots per game in only 32 mins, compared to the NBA where there is a 24 shot clock in 48 mins. Everything is relative.
10 RPG is still very little unless they only take 20 shots a game or something. And 27 ppg against little Koreans is very low when all he should ahve to do is jam over them. He's 300 punds...no way should that be a problem.
His numbers should be much better than LeBron numbers. south Korea high school comp. isn't even close to American top 20 schools. BTW, LeBron has a lot less baggage than the South Korean government. Eeeesh...LeBron doesn't have any baggage! He won't get fined for accepting 1,000 hummers in the NBA.
It's south Korea...not north korea and definitely not china. Last time I checked SK was one of the more highly democratic countries in asia so I doubt they cared or if they could even stop him from doing what he wanted (like china could with yao). And he's not signed with any pro clubs in asia so there'd be no buying out his contract or whatever with all the euros. With that said...I doubt this kid has enough skills to jump straight to the nba. He could without a doubt be recruited to play at the D-1 ncaa level though. Maybe he can go to college here and play just his freshman year and show the nba people that he truly has skills (if any). If he doesn't have any skills, hey, he gets a free 4 year college education from a top university. Win win situation
South Korea gov can be a pain to deal with as well. For example, there is mandatory military service for the high school graduates.
I wouldn't call that "a pain to deal with." Many European countries have the same policies, usually worse. It doesn't prevent them from coming to the NBA; but they DO have to serve their country at one point or another. Besides, this guy WON'T be in the NBA for awhile.
They can easily cancel that requirement especially if your family has money or your a big celebrity (park chan ho)
Cool, maybe the Rockets will get him too. Put him at PF, then the Rockets would have all of China and Korea behind us.
