Recently, the tight schedule of the Korea Professional Basketball League (KBL) is on the cutting board again.
On the 11th, after the match between Seoul SK and Daegu Korea Gas Corporation, Choi Jun-yong’s interview caused a stir in the basketball world. At the time, Choi Jun-yong said, “There are only 10 teams in the KBL, but they play as many as 54 games.” “Compared to other countries, the number of games is too many. The schedule is really tight. I set the schedule without thinking about protecting the players. This is why there are always a lot of injured players in the second half of the season,” he complained about the schedule.
“I hope the players don’t get hurt. I prepared for the season every single day for a year, but getting hurt is really hard mentally. It’s hard to see players who keep getting hurt,” he said. “I hope KBL will pay attention to these points. It is ridiculous to play 54 games from October to March of the following year,” he added.
From the 2001-2002 season to the present, KBL has continued the regular league 54 game system. It is the league with the third largest number of games, following the NBA, which plays 82 games, and Japan’s B.League, which plays 60 games.
The NBA, which has the most schedule, guarantees players a thorough rest. When a back-to-back (continuous match) game is caught, the team often excludes the player from the entry. In the NBA last season, only 5 players out of 605 players who played all 82 regular league games were registered.
In the case of Japan’s B. League, it plays 60 games, which is more than Korea, but it only plays on Wednesdays and weekends, so there is plenty of time in the schedule. After the players have enough rest, they return to the game in their best condition.
On the other hand, KBL is a league with a tight schedule and few breaks. It was rumored that there was a lot of training outside of the game. When I have a short break, I immediately play a practice game with college teams.
Since there is no so-called ‘tanking’ club that intentionally gives up grades for rebuilding, we are doing our best in every game. Even at the level of the federation, garbage time (the time when a match is decided early and the main player is dropped and the bench member is put in to finish the game) is minimized, so the main players play for a long time. In particular, it is not easy to give a break because the player base is thin compared to other leagues. Excluding Ulsan Hyundai Mobis (21 players), there is no club with more than 20 registered players. 스포츠토토
As a result, even though they show good performance at the beginning of the season, at the end of the season, scores and performance continue to drop. Players are also exposed to the risk of injury as their stamina declines.
In addition, this season’s scheduled schedule was also twisted due to changes in the schedule of the East Asian Super League (EASL). EASL, which was supposed to be held as a home-away system during the season, changed to a tournament held in one region in March with the opening of KBL just around the corner. In response, KBL hastily rescheduled the game. In the case of SK, the game against Changwon LG, which was scheduled for the 27th, was advanced to the 1st.
In particular, in February, the schedule became tighter as the national team break overlapped, and most teams had a forced march of 6 games in 10 days in mid-February.