ET Land’s center scores major milestones

Seo Jang-hoon

ET Land Elephants center Seo Jang-hoon set KBL milestones on Saturday evening, when he reached the 12,000-point and 4,800-rebound mark in an entertaining 74-72 win over the LG Sakers in Changwon.

Seo, the all-time KBL leader in both categories, grabbed a defensive rebound six minutes into the first quarter to reach 4,800 rebounds and then scored a basket in the eighth minute to earn his 12,000th point.

Seo finished the game with 20 points to lead his team in scoring and added three rebounds in 30 minutes and 32 seconds of playing time. His teammate Herbert Hill scored a bucket with 1.2 seconds remaining on the clock to help ET Land to a two-point win.

Seo is averaging 16.73 points per game this season, his 13th in the KBL. That’s the 12th best scoring average in the league and the fourth best among domestic players, putting him behind the likes of Moon Tae-young (LG), Kim Hyo-beom (SK) and Moon Tae-jong (ET Land). He is also averaging 5.3 rebounds per game, which has given ET Land a low-post boost, and a 17-6 record, tops in the league.

Seo is well ahead of other players looking for a place on the all-time scoring leaders’ list. Moon Kyung-eun, who retired from the SK Knights last season, has 9,347 career points, while Choo Seung-gyun of KCC Egis has amassed 9,171 points in his 14-year career.

Kim Joo-sung, who is widely considered the best domestic player in the KBL, has 6,618 points over the course of his nine-year career with a career average of 16.3 points per game and will need to average 20 points over the next five seasons to close in on Seo.

Seo is also dominant on the all-time rebounds list. Kim Joo-sung is second on the list with 2,738 rebounds and is the only player anywhere close to reaching Seo’s rebound record at this point.

Seo’s achievement is a testament to his consistency. With 54 games in a KBL season, a player needs to average 20 points per game in 11 seasons to amass 12,000 points. Seo averaged at least 20 points per game in seven consecutive seasons after entering the KBL with the SK Knights in the 1998-99 season. In four of those seasons, he averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds per game, a feat no other Korean player has achieved.

In a clash of first-place teams yesterday, Seo helped ET Land to a 65-61 win over the Dongbu Promy to take first place.

He and his teammate Hill led the way for the win, with Hill scoring 18 points and grabbing nine rebounds and Seo adding 16 points and nine rebounds.

By Jason Kim [jason@joongang.co.kr]