How is Ha? Where is Ha Seung-Jin? Common questions asked by a lot of people when pertaining to anything basketball for the South Korean national team. Like it or not, recent memory has Ha Seung-Jin imprinted into the core of the team’s existence. Why not? He was the first Korean to be drafted into the NBA. A towering 7-3 center with a Beatles hairdo, Seung-Jin was really a shy teenager.
Almost a decade ago, NBA Commissioner David Stern echoed: “With the 46th pick of the 2004 NBA Draft, the Portland Trailblazers select Ha Seung-Jin from South Korea.” Expectations where heavy for the 7-3 giant from the land of the morning calm, who was barely out of high school and was to begin his NBA career. “The Korean Yao Ming” “Seo Jang-Hoon’s successor” were labeled into then Korea’s next basketball hope. Unlike Yao, Ha had the lift and motor to finish aggressively into the paint, often preferring to pivot and flush it over a nifty shake and hook for a basket. Ha’s early pre-draft workout had him compared to Eddy Curry of the Chicago Bulls. Build, strength, motor and midl athletics were the upside of Yao. His downside? Ha was not quick enough, awkward timing for shot-blocking and most of all, can he adapt and thrive in the NBA’s level of competition.
Perhaps the most important question by Korea is whether Ha will shoulder the country back to Asian supremacy? Korea’s traditional rival China had Yao Ming, picture Ha against Yao in a crucial game. Never happened in the Doha 2006 Asian games where Ha Seung-Jin then was the team’s leading rebounder. After an impressive 15 rebounds effort against Bahrain, Ha Seung-Jin would be outplayed by a rising star in Hamed Haddadi of Iran, a nation dubbed as Asia’s fast rising team. Korea would eventually finish fifth, a far fall from the lofty aspiration of defending their 2002 Asian games gold.
The 2007 FIBA Asia would be Ha Seung-Jin’s most productive tenure with the national team as he lead Korea in rebounding as well as second in scoring as Korea finished Group D with a 3-0 record. Against a powerhouse Jordanian squad against Islam Abbas, Ha put up a mighty double double of 21 points and 12 rebounds in Korea’s first acid test. Against Japan, Ha would battle foul trouble and be outperformed by JR Sakuragi but the Koreans would escape to convincing win behind Yang Dong-Geun. Disaster struck against Lebanon where Frank Vogel would dominate Ha while Korea could not find an answer against Fadi El-Khatib. Regrouping, Ha Seung-Jin would lead Korea against Kazakhstan to secure a third place finish. It would mean no direct qualification for the Beijing Olympics and Korea had to go through the combined wildcard tournament the following year. A hamstring injury sustained during the final days of practice would limit Ha’s production for Korea. In the first game against Slovenia, Ha would struggle mightily and would not make a single field goal. Korea’s leading rebounder the past summer was limited to one rebound in 13 minutes. Ha would not play against Canada as his team lost a close one.
Injured and it seems that the NBA door has closed, Ha would finally return to Korea and sign with Jeonju KCC Egis, a team that had three KBL championships that had been lead by the legendary Seo Jang-Hoon. Ha did not only had big shoes to fill, but had a legend to equal or perhaps surpass. Armed with NBA, D-League and FIBA experience, Ha would play an up and down season. Ha had lingering injuries in both the hamstring and his ankles. There were games where he seemed healthy by producing a double double in a KCC win but would stumble in the next game, reeling. There was a silver lining to that season, KCC would win its first championship since 2004. Ha Seung-Jin, the centerpiece was more of a rebounding center and was not the main reason KCC Egis won. It was a game fought in the perimeter firepower where Choo Seung-Kyun lead KCC’s sniping against Aaron Haynes and Samsung. Milestone for Ha Seung-Jin as KCC Egis won the 2009 KBL championship in a dramatic game 7.
A KBL championship and now Korea was building up for the 2010 Asian Games gold and the 2010 World championship in Turkey. Ha Seung-Jin would once again be part of the national team. First task was the 2009 FIBA Asia championship as it was a gateway for the world championship in Turkey. It did not start well for Ha as he was hobbled by a lingering ankle and hamstring injury. Hur Jae would utilize Kim Joo-Sung and Chung Ang’s star Oh Se-Keun to preserve Ha Seung-Jin for the later rounds. Against Iran, Korea would absorb their first defeat and it hurt for Ha as Hamed Haddadi would dominate him and Korea with a 21 points and 16 rebounds performance. Ha Seung-Jin was limited to 7 points and 4 rebounds. Losses to Lebanon and Chinese Taipei would render Korea to a fifth spot finish. Scrap the world championship participation in Turkey. It was time to focus for the 2010 Asian games.
Ha Seung-Jin entered the season with a title to defend for KCC Egis but like that of last season, Ha would once again deal with injuries and a new game plan by KBL teams against him and his team. KBL teams would force the tempo, making KCC run. They would force double teams and even triple teams as a last resort if Ha established position in the low post. When Ha is sidelined by an injury, KCC would go small in order to compensate with Ha Seung-Jin’s production. Eventually, KCC would lose to Yang Dong-Geun and Ham Ji-Hoon’s Ulsan Mobis Phoebus in the KBL season. Matching up Ham Ji-Hoon against Ha in the offense caused him trouble as not only Ham can shoot, but he draws out Ha into his discomfort zone that allows for incursions in the paint where Yang Dong-Geun would shred them with his gutsy drives.
Forget the season it was time for the Asian Games in Guangzhou. Ha was limited in practice due to his injuries from the previous season and it forced Korea to be more smaller but more flexible lead by the versatility of naturalized player Lee Seung-Jun alongside the veteran Kim Joo-Sung and rising star Oh Se-Keun. Ha Seung-Jin was hardly a factor as Korea would end up finishing silver next to China.
In the 2011 season, KCC fans were expecting another championship. Part of it was that the KBL had limited the foreign player for each team to one. That means KCC with Ha holds a significant advantage over KBL teams with the towering Ha. Get the foreign player of the opposing team in trouble and Ha would be unstoppable. This season was more productive for Ha as he increased his numbers to his career averages. Together with the back-court of Jeon Tae-Pong and Kang Byung-Hyun, KCC would make it to the KBL finals, their third straight appearance. This time it was against Wonju Dongbu Promy lead by Kim Joo-Sung and Lee Kwang-Jae. KCC would win due to their balanced offense and having Ha Seung-Jin draw the double team to give the perimeter open spaces.
Ha Seung-Jin was called up for the national team as his coach, Hur Jae plans to make him the centerpiece of the team. Hur Jae employed a triangle offense. “Ha gets the ball and we will faciliate from there.” Said Hur Jae. He was employing the KCC Egis playbook. The addition of Incheon’s Moon Tae-Jong would complete the team as Moon is an excellent point forward that fits with Ha and Yang Dong-Geun to form the triangle. The plan had a rough start as Ha Seung-Jin would be off and injured through the preparation period and Hur figured that Korea could be doomed if it was inclined on his prized center. True enough, Hur would employ a 3-2 zone offense in Tianjin. They would blitz through Group A in convincing wins against Malaysia, Lebanon, Malaysia and India…. without any concrete contribution from Ha. Eventually, Korea’s win streak will be halted by Iran. Hur Jae met Iran with height pound for pound as Ha started. Hamed Haddadi would eventually dominate Ha once more with a 17 points and 11 rebound effort as Korea became strangled by its stagnation of the offense as Ha would post up to no avail. If Ha was visibly struggling, the team would rely on jump shots instead of the zone offense execution. Result was a 79-62 rout.
Playing against Japan in a quarter-final match, Ha Seung-Jin would be more productive as he had 8 rebounds as Korea won convincingly. But against China, Korea would suffer an exit as Yi Jianlian would prove unstoppable even for Kim Joo-Sung. That would be followed by a suppression from Hamed Haddadi against Iran. In an exercise of futility, Korea’s main drawn artillery was for Ha to post up Haddadi in an attempt to get him into foul trouble and in hopes of drawing a double team to open up space for shooters like Cho Sung-Min, Moon Tae-Jong and Kim Yong-Hwan. Korea did just that, but Haddadi on single coverage, made Ha’s lumbering post game ineffective. Hur Jae’s main weapon had failed as Seung-Jin was repulsed time and time again. Ha’s ineffectiveness was the key for Korea’s game in that game; unable to create anything inside, Korea was forced to shoot highly contested shots. Every miss was seemingly a guaranteed Iranian possession. On the defensive side, Ha Seung-Jin found himself being schooled by Haddadi through post pivots and those catch and dunk game coming off a high screen. Haddadi made 34 minutes of domination against Seung-Jin.
Moving forward, Seung-Jin would not even play against the Philippines for the third place game that meant a trip to the Olympic wildcard in Venezuela. Without Ha, Korea was forced to rely on their trademark inside and outside passing game to survive a tough Gilas team. Already without Yang Dong-Geun Korea mustered everything they got for a miracle win. Korea was going to Venezuela next year, with Ha Seung-Jin serving the air force. It had no stipulation for a release clause with the national team. Korea would be without Seung-Jin in Venezuela as they absorbed the defeat from Russia and the Dominican Republic. Minus the towering 7-3 center, Korea would utilize naturalized bigman Lee Seung-Jun aka Eric Sandrin, Kim Jong-Kyu, the backup for Ha Seung-Jin and the wunderkind from highschool, Lee Jong-Hyun. The following year, the national team was drawn up and no Ha Seung-Jin. Sorties for the bigmen indicate that Korea was ready to move on and entrust the center spot to youngsters Lee Jong-Hyun and Kim Jong-Kyu. Both would be instrumental in winning the 2013 East Asian championships and assisting Korea to a third place finish. In that summer, Ha Seung-Jin tied the knot with his long-time girlfriend.
The national player pool will be announced after the end fo the KBL 2014 playoffs. We are not expecting Ha Seung-Jin to be there. Head coach Yoo Jae-Hak pointed out: “Ha Seung-Jin would be released from the airforce public service in July. Competition starts in August and I cannot accommodate new players as we will be in the process of final preparations at that point.” Korea is aiming for Asian Games gold in Incheon. Their last Gold medal was back in 2002 when they hosted the Asian Games in Busan.
Times have changed for Ha Seung-Jin. He was once dubbed as the future of the national team and despite his services, Korea could not win any Asian titles. Times also have changed on how the game is played in Asia. Slow, lumbering giants who primarily posts up are almost extinct; giving way to agile bigmen who could shoot outside the paint, run the break and most important, catch the ball in movement off screens set. Ha Seung-Jin does not have those, and it is currently an anathema of how Yoo Jae-Hak have structured the offense of the national team. He runs a Mike D’Antoni inspired sets that involve spacing, continuous screens inspired from the flex offense that makes it imperative that bigmen must be mobile and have the range to shoot jumpers to make way for strong guard and wing plays. Korea’s performance as a team improved based on Samsung Sports metrics in comparison with the 2011 national team with Ha Seung-Jin and the 2013 national team without Ha Seung-Jin. If we don’t bother digging up statistics, casual and keen observers alike will remark the crisp ball movement, utility situations and flexibility of Korea on both offense and defense based on their performance in Manila.
Korea hopes that an improved team based on the results will manifest in the World Cup and be the key to win the Asian games gold. Anything less is a failure. A new direction is open for Korea and it involves younger and more agile bigmen at the helm for Korea. Lee Jong-Hyun is still improving in the college league. Kim Jong-Kyu is a vital piece of the Changwon LG Sakers’ aspiration for their first KBL title. Park Jong-Hyun is being primed as the next big thing out of Masango HS as he is terrorizing the league with a skillset not seen since Seo Jang-Hoon. Where does that leave Ha Seung-Jin? We cannot answer at this point. All we know is that Ha Seung-Jin, seemingly healthy after two years of not playing for the national team is ready to contend for a championship in the KBL next season. Ha Seung-Jin will re-join a radically different KCC Egis next season. Gone is Korean – American Jeon Tae-Pong. In place is the still deadly veteran Kim Hyeo-Beom. Kang Byung-Hyun has just recently joined after a year and a half serving the military. Change too, is imminent with rookie Kim Min-Goo, said to be the best shooting guard in the KBL at only 22 years of age. Chang Min-Kug, the new wing-man is a dead-shot from long range. Most importantly, Hur Jae is still at the helm. Perhaps if there is anyone in the KBL who believes in Ha the most, it is the fiery veteran coach. Remember the days when Hur would scold Ha for not keeping pace at practice as Ha was too slow? It was that kind of Hur Jae who motivates you through being critical. When a coach pushes you to go beyond, he believes in you and has faith in you.
Sakerland 