Hong Yu-sun (19), the biggest hit in the 2024-2025 season women’s professional basketball (WKBL), is like a ‘sudden pop-out’ to basketball fans. Since his debut this season, Hong Yu-sun has only played in 6 games as a starter until the Woori Bank game on the 16th. However, this player has been recording a ‘double-double’ in the last four games in a row, scoring double-digit points and rebounding in double-digit numbers.
Park Ji-soo (26, Galatasaray), who has been called a ‘national treasure center’ since his high school days, also broke the record for the most consecutive double-doubles (3 games) by a rookie, which he set in the 2016-2017 season. Hong Yu-soon is the first rookie to record a double-double in four consecutive games since the 2007 season, when WKBL was a single league.
Until just four months ago, Hong Yu-sun was a player who had never played basketball in front of fans. Hong Yu-sun, a Korean in Japan, was born and raised in Japan. However, as a Korean national, I first learned basketball while attending a Korean school in Japan. Afterwards, he played as a college league player at Osaka Sangyo University, but had no professional experience. In the stands on the court where Hong Yu-sun played, there were always only people she knew, including her parents and her friend’s parents, just across the bridge.
However, his ‘Korean dream’ began when Shinhan Bank, which obtained the first pick in the rookie player draft, offered Hong Yu-sun, a Korean national, to go to Korea. He began his professional career after being selected by Shinhan Bank as the first pick in the WKBL rookie player draft for the 2024-2025 season in August.
Hong Yoo-soon, whom we met at Shinhan Bank’s Blue Campus training center in Yongin on the 23rd during the All-Star break, said, “At first, it didn’t even feel like I was playing basketball in Korea, but these days, as I play a lot of games and get attention, I’m starting to realize, ‘I’m a Korean WKBL player.’ “I didn’t even care about the All-Star Game,” he said with a laugh.
Shinhan Bank was at the bottom with 2 wins and 9 losses until the 1st of this month, but managed to bounce back by winning 3 wins and 1 loss in the last 4 games in which Hong Yu-sun played with consecutive double-doubles. It has now become a matter of interest to the entire league as to how many games Hong Yu-soon, who had a ‘double-double’ in every game before the break, can extend this record.
However, Hong Yu-soon said she was more worried about not being able to play right now than whether she could continue her streak. Hong Yoo-soon said, “As my playing time has increased recently, my sense of the game has improved, but I am afraid that my sense of play will decrease as I rest during the All-Star break.”
Hong Yu-soon played more than 35 minutes in all of the last five games. In particular, during the match against BNK on the 9th, for the first time since his debut, he played all 40 minutes without resting even for a second. It may be daunting for a player who played an average of 13 minutes in the first 9 games of his debut. However, Hong Yu-soon said, “In Japan, when I started, I played for the entire 40 minutes without substitution. It’s been like that ever since middle school and high school. I am confident in my physical strength. “It’s not hard,” he said. “I’m confident that I can play for 40 minutes in the future.”
Hong Yu-sun, who boldly stated since the draft that “his goal is to be the Rookie of the Year and the national team,” seems to have virtually confirmed that he will be the Rookie of the Year. Hong Yu-sun said, “When I first came, there were a lot of older sisters in the same position, so I leaned on them a little bit. Also, the physical fight was strong and the height was high (compared to the college league I played in Japan), so I wasn’t able to show everything I had. However, as my sisters were unable to play due to injuries, my playing time increased. The team had few wins, so the mood was down, but we played with a sense of responsibility and the mindset of ‘let’s do it.’ “As the team moves in a good direction, I think my records also improved,” he said.
It may seem like a sudden surprise to domestic fans, but in fact, Hong Yu-soon visited the WKBL rookie draft site in 2017 when he was a middle school student. Hong Yu-soon said, “A Korean-Japanese who was working as a basketball agency in Japan at the time brought me here. ‘WKBL also has Korean-Japanese players. “It was the first time I found out that WKBL existed when he said, ‘You too can take on the challenge.’”
The Korean-Japanese player Hong Yu-sun saw from a distance at the draft site and took a group photo with was manager Hwang Mi-woo (33), who is currently serving as an interpreter for Japanese players at his team’s Shinhan Bank. Manager Hwang was selected as the 5th pick in the first round by Samsung Life Insurance in the 2017-2018 WKBL rookie player draft, becoming the first Korean-Japanese player to advance to the WKBL.
Manager Hwang is currently in charge of interpreting for the team’s Japanese player Rika Tanimura. Hong Yu-sun, who can speak basic Korean, usually goes through training without an interpreter, but if she doesn’t know something, she always asks Manager Hwang for help. Hong Yu-sun said, “At that time, I never thought I could become a professional player. “But it feels like a miracle to be able to meet again on the same team as the older woman I saw back then.”
Hong Yu-soon also had some experience with becoming a member of the Korean national team last year, which is one of her other goals. Last year, we prepared for a Triple Jam competition with Korean-Japanese players as a 3-on-3 team in Japan, and we trained together at the Jincheon Athletes’ Village as a training partner for the Korean national team players who were preparing to participate in the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) 3-on-3 Asian Cup. Hong Yu-sun said, “I was surprised at how big the weight room in the athletes’ village was. “I stayed for about two weeks, and the food was so delicious and I loved it,” he said. “Until then, I didn’t know I could play as a player in Korea.” “I think it will be a really new feeling to go to Jincheon as a member of the Korean national basketball team again,” he said.
WKBL will resume the league in the new year after the All-Star break. Hong Yu-soon said, “I hope to continue what I was doing well even after the break.” In other words, the goal is to extend the double-double streak.
On the day of the interview, Shinhan Bank coach Guna Dan, who is recovering from brain tumor surgery on the 12th, visited the training ground for the first time after surgery. Coach Koo, who watched Hong Yoo-soon’s performance with joy after the surgery, said, “Isn’t this really a hit product? (laughs). From the moment we received the first lottery ticket and looked at the pool of candidates for Korean-Japanese players, Yusun was unrivaled. “He is really fast and has natural physical strength,” he said. “To compare it to an idol, it is the ‘Center Award of Confidence.’ The coaches’ project this season was ‘Yoosun Rookie of the Year.’ “I hope my surgery went well, so I want to bring good energy to the players,” he said.
Yongin = Reporter Lim Bomi [email protected]
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