“My body was off for a long time, but my heart was always on the court. Looking forward to the hot and cold offensive basketball.”
Park Chan-suk (64), the ‘legend’ of Korean women’s basketball, will lead the team as the first coach of the Seodaemun-gu Women’s Basketball Team, which will be established next month. After being selected as the youngest women’s national basketball team in 1975 as a freshman in high school, she won the silver medal at the 1979 Women’s Basketball World Championship and the silver medal at the 1984 LA Olympics. is the best star player Korean women’s basketball has produced. Park Chan-suk, whom we met on the 7th at the Seodaemun Culture and Sports Center in Seoul, said, “My heart is beating because something I’ve always been waiting for has come true.”
There weren’t many opportunities to show leadership as a leader for him, who had great player days. In the late 1990s, he coached his parents’ team, Pacific Chemical, and in 2005, he coached the national team for the East Asian Games, which was temporarily implemented, but this was his first time in charge of a team.
The Seodaemun-gu Unemployment Basketball Team, which he will lead, is the first women’s basketball team in Seoul, both professional and unemployed. Currently, women’s professional basketball teams include Gimcheon City Hall and Sacheon City Hall. The National Unemployment Basketball Federation, which will be held in Gimcheon, Gyeongsangbuk-do in May, is expected to be the first step for the Seodaemun-gu Unemployed Basketball Team.
He said, “As a leader, my goal is, of course, to have the skills to win,” and he said, “I will try to consistently produce good results while running for a long time.”
Park Chan-sook appointed Sohn Kyung-won (54), who served as the national team’s special guard, as coach after him, and plans to complete the formation of the team within this month through a joining test on the 20th. As it is an unemployed team, only ‘real players’ with more than 3 years playing experience and who have joined the Basketball Association can be selected, not those who enjoy football- basket as a hobby. He said, “I will select players who are desperate for basketball but have not been able to realize their dreams because there is no place to play, and I will raise them well enough to be praised by the professional team.”
The reason why she decided to return to the field was a sense of crisis that the popularity of women’s basketball has recently declined due to women’s volleyball. “It’s a really embarrassing situation. People around me were worried about whether I would be able to train at that age, but the willingness to accept it was also because I wanted to contribute even a little to the energization of women’s basketball.” He also said, “I hear criticism that basketball is boring these days with defense-oriented tactics, but we will show ‘offensive basketball’ with spectacular techniques to bring fans to the stadium. “
On the 31st of last month, when the news of his inauguration as manager of the basketball team was announced, another legend, Kim Young-hee, who had collaborated with him to win the silver medal at the LA Olympics, died. after a long battle with illness. Coach Park said, “Young hee was taller than me, so it was hard to deal with him.”” he said.
Although Park Chan-sook was away from the court, she took care of women’s basketball by serving as the vice president of the Korea Sports Association and the game operation headquarters of the Korea Women’s Basketball Federation as a major player in the sports world. He also appeared in variety shows with his daughter (Seo Hyo-myeong), who is active as an actress. A year ago, she challenged as a senior model and stood on the stage twice. The Park Director said, “It’s fun to have different experiences.”
He said, “I still want to be remembered as an ‘eternal basketball player’.” “There will be no change in one tenacity to protect the basketball court from now on. I want to leave the three letters of my name forever as ‘Park Chan-suk, the eternal basketball player’ who sets an example for the younger team.”
