Cho Yong-ho, who is active in the KBO League kt Wiz, played in 131 games last year and recorded a batting average of .308, 146 hits, 3 home runs, 44 RBIs, and 52 runs as a professional debut. I had the best season ever. Cho Yong-ho, who joined SK Wyverns in 2014 as a foster player and transferred to kt after the 2018 season, had a slightly special transfer method. Cho Yong-ho transferred to kt through a ‘free trade’, not a free agent, compensation player, trade between players, naming rights trade, cash trade, or the 2nd draft.
In fact, trade in professional sports is accomplished when the interests of each club are aligned, so during the negotiation process, there is a great fight to get a better player. However, sometimes it is a waste to let go, and clubs send them to other clubs ‘for free’ to open up the future of players who are no longer given a chance. Since the player is given away without any compensation, the free trade requires a decisive decision by the original club.ㅋㅋㅋ벳
In women’s professional basketball, on the 2nd, BNK Some, the runner-up in the 2022-2023 season, reinforced the squad through two free trades. The main characters are Park Da-jung, who played an active role in Woori Bank, and Choi Seo-yeon, who played an active role in Samsung Life Bloomings. In particular, Park Da-jung is a ‘top prospect’ who was nominated first overall in the 2011-2012 rookie draft, so basketball fans are paying attention to what kind of activity she will perform at BNK.
Different Rookie Draft Atmosphere for Different Levels of Rookies
Every year, many players apply for the rookie draft to enter the WKBL and knock on the door to the professional stage, but it is not very often that a large rookie who can shake the league appears. In addition, the size of prospects who can work on the professional stage is also different every year, so the atmosphere of each club and basketball fans facing the rookie draft will inevitably change every year depending on how great a newcomer appears or how abundant the prospects are.
In the previous WKBL rookie draft, the year that made each club and basketball fans the most tense (?) was the 2016-2017 season rookie draft, which featured Park Ji-soo, a former rookie who has been active as a national team starting center since his sophomore year of high school. At that time, a rare number of reporters gathered at the draft site, and KB Stars, who picked the first overall pick, became the lucky protagonist to nominate Park Ji-soo. And KB, who obtained Park Ji-soo, won the first championship after starting as a pro in the 2018-2019 season.
The rookie draft for the 2018-2019 season, held in January 2019, also drew attention from basketball fans as Park Ji-hyun, a promising guard of Soongui Girls’ High School, who dominated the girls’ high school stage, appeared. At that time, Woori Bank broke through a 4.8% probability (1/21) and picked the first overall pick, and Park Ji-hyun has grown steadily since joining Woori Bank and is currently active as the future of Woori Bank and Korean women’s basketball. In the rookie draft of that year, besides Park Ji-hyun, many good prospects such as Lee So-hee (BNK) and Shin I-seul (Samsung Life Insurance) appeared.
On the other hand, after the ‘Park Ji-soo storm’ passed, the 2017-2018 season rookie draft did not receive much attention from basketball fans. Choi Min-joo, a forward from Sookmyung Girls’ High School who spent her childhood in Switzerland, was nominated for Hana 1Q with the first overall pick, but Choi Min-joo played only 22 games in the 5 seasons after joining the professional team. In fact, out of 14 players who were nominated as pros in the 2017-2018 season rookie draft, only three players (Choi Min-joo, Kim Ji-eun, and Kim Na-yeon) are currently active.
Reunited with manager Park Jung-eun as a manager and player after 10 years
Park Da-jeong reigned as the strongest in girls’ high school basketball to the extent that she won three national championships for three consecutive years from 2009 to 2011 when she was in Inseong Girls’ High School. In particular, in his junior year, he won the MVP award in the WKBL Total Cultivation and Presidential Competition and was nominated by Samsung Life Insurance with the first overall pick in the October 2011 rookie draft. At the time, Samsung Life Insurance veterans Park Jung-eun (BNK coach) and Lee Mi-sun were still active, so Park Da-jung was highly anticipated as a leading role in Samsung Life’s generational change.
However, Park Da-jung transferred to Shinhan Bank Sbird through a trade after two seasons without becoming the successor to Park Jung-eun and Lee Mi-sun. However, Park Da-jeong, who failed to settle down at Shinhan Bank, returned to Samsung Life Insurance through a 3:3 trade between Shinhan Bank and Samsung Life Insurance in November 2016. And Park Da-jung transferred to Woori Bank through a free trade in August 2018. In the 7 years since he joined the pro, he has worn 3 jerseys through 3 trades.
In the 2018-2019 season, Park Da-jung played an active role as a key sixth woman for Woori Bank, showing 5.20 points, 2.23 rebounds, and a 3-point success rate of 40.2% in 35 games. However, at the end of the 2018-2019 season, Park Da-jung was unable to be included in Woori Bank’s main rotation and moved around the bench. Even in the 2022-2023 season, when he experienced his first championship victory in his debut, Park Da-jung played in 23 games and remained in disappointing performance with 1.78 points and 1.30 rebounds.
Park Da-jung signed a free agency contract with Woori Bank for 3 years and an annual salary of 60 million won, and then transferred to BNK led by coach Park Jeong-eun through another free trade on the 2nd. In the 2022-2023 season, Ahn Hye-ji played 36 minutes 40 seconds and Lee So-hee played 34 minutes 29 seconds. At the end of the season, as Lee Sa-bin, who was a major bench resource, announced his retirement, the guard team’s player base became thinner, so it was imperative for BNK to reinforce players.
Park Da-jeong has become a midfielder who has spent 12 seasons in the pro, but except for the 2018-2019 season, when she played 18 minutes and 20 seconds in 35 games, there were few seasons where she was active as the team’s main player. For Park Da-jung, the biggest concern is the amount of playing time of the main players, so moving to BNK can be a good opportunity. Will Park Da-jung be able to face a turning point in her career as a player at BNK, led by coach Park Jeong-eun, a big senior who ate a pot of rice during her first professional year?