In the 1990s, the movie ‘The First Slam Dunk’, based on a Japanese cartoon, was a craze. The cumulative number of viewers exceeded 3.34 million. More than 1 million copies of the manga have also been sold. There was even the word “sad parent (a person who is crazy about slam dunking),” and Kim Seon-hyeong (35), a professional basketball Seoul SK guard, is one of them.
Kim Sun-hyung recently changed his theme song during the game to the Slam Dunk OST (original soundtrack.메이저사이트 ‘Dai Zero Kan’ accompaniment with the lyrics ‘Sun! Flash Sun! Kim Sun-hyung’. Kim Seon-hyung, whom I met at the training ground, came wearing a T-shirt with the slam dunk character Seo Tae-woong on it. Kim Seon-hyung said, “A child fan gave it to me as a gift. I was moved by the story that hundreds of people even open-run the Slam Dunk pop-up store to buy limited edition goods. So I wore this t-shirt and commuted,” he laughed.
Kim Seon-hyeong, who watched the slam dunk movie with his wife five weeks ago, said, “When I was just starting basketball, I rented a cartoon from a bookstore and read it. Even though he knows the content and the consequences, he watched the movie and his heart was magnified. Unlike the original work, it is impressive that the story was developed from the point of view of Song Tae-seop, going back and forth between the past and the present.” Regarding the character he loves the most, he said, “During my school days, I wanted to be like Seo Tae-woong, so I copied the double clutch. Now that I think about it, the really perfect basketball player is Jung Woo-sung of Sanwang Technical High School.” When I brought up the story of teammate Choi Joon-yong, he joked, “I’m an eccentric like Kang Baek-ho, but I don’t know if Kang Baek-ho’s tenacity is the same.”
Kim Seon-hyeong also said, “Even though Kang Baek-ho suffered a back injury in the Sanwanggong Classic, ‘When was the era of glory for Yeong-gang? I am now,’ and the scene on the court gave me goosebumps.” “What if it was me? Although it was an early game in the national championships, I think I will show my fighting spirit. I want to try to the end against the strongest team, and because sports have something that goes beyond reality.”
What is the reason why people in their 30s and 40s and even the MZ generation are enthusiastic about slam dunk? Kim Seon-hyung said, “It seems that the ‘retro wind’ is blowing by releasing a cartoon of memories into a movie. Each character is alive and contains an unbreakable heart.” In the movie, Buksan coach Ahn Han-soo says, “The moment you give up is the end of the match.”
Kim Seon-hyung, who dreamed of becoming a basketball player while watching the cartoon Slam Dunk in his first year of middle school, is still 35 years old this year. In the game against KT last month, he hit a one-handed dunk, and in the match against Gas Corporation, he led the victory by scoring 47 points alone until the 3rd overtime.
He is first overall with 6.4 assists this season. The average score is 15.5 points, which is 5th among domestic players. It is a ‘career high’ in 12 professional seasons. To Oh Se-geun (36, Anyang KGC), a classmate of Chung-Ang University whom Kim Seon-hyeong met recently, “How can you be so good without jumping? When I said, “I will do it until I am 50 years old,” Oh Se-geun had a conversation with the answer, “Then do you do the same as you did in college?”
Kim Seon-hyung said, “When my ankle was dislocated in 2017, people around me said, ‘The motor nerves are over and the aging curve (senescence) will come’, but I broke it proudly. In terms of cars, if they ran at 200 km/h in the past, these days they have reduced the speed to 100 km. Basketball is more fun because my field of view is widening and I can control the strength and weakness.” “Keep your body fat around 10.5-11%. His wife feeds and dresses him like a Barbie doll. He laughed, saying, “I must have inherited the gene for slow aging from his grandmother, who corrected him even in his late 80s.”
The slam dunk is marching high in the theater, but on the court there is even talk that ‘Korean basketball is ruined’. In the 1990s, during the basketball party, I drove my brother’s army, but these days, TV ratings are in the 0.1% range. Kim Seon-hyung said, “It is said that the competitiveness of Korean basketball has declined because of the introduction of the NBA and the introduction of foreign players. Still, I thought it was the worst three or four years ago, but this season is getting better. “I play with the thought of playing a game that is worth the ticket price,” he said. On the 19th, in front of a full crowd (5,271 people) at the Jamsil Student Gymnasium in Seoul, Kim Seon-hyung scored 20 points and 10 assists to stop KGC from winning 11 consecutive victories.
SK, which fell to a tie for 9th place at the beginning of the season, recently climbed to 3rd place with 7 wins and 1 loss. As last season’s league champion, they will compete in the East Asian Super League, which will be held in Japan next month. Kim Seon-hyung said, “I want to protect my pride on behalf of the country. He also said, “The goal is to repeat the league (2 consecutive wins).”