Kianna Smith takes MVP honors in debut WKBL game

Kianna Smith of the Yongin Samsung Life Blueminx, right, plays the ball against Hana OneQ on Monday at the Bucheon Gymnasium in Bucheon, Gyeonggi. [WKBL]

Women's Korean Basketball League (WKBL) Korean-American rookie Kianna Smith of the Yongin Samsung Life Blueminx was named MVP in her very first game of the season.

The Blueminx beat Bucheon Hana 1Q 85-69 on Monday, with Smith scoring 21 points and adding five assists and four rebounds. Her 21 points were the most a rookie has ever scored. The previous record was five points set by Kang A-jeong in 2007.

Just two matches into the season, Smith’s 21 points in one match puts her third in the points standing, following teammate Kang Yoo-rim of the Blueminx, who is playing her third WKBL season. Kang scored the most points against Hana 1Q on Monday, adding 26 points alone.

Kim Sonia of Shinhan Bank S-Birds, who is in her 10th year in the WKBL, scored 23 points on Sunday against defending champions Cheongju KB Stars to take second on the points table.

That Smith almost matched the two more experienced players on her first outing is an impressive accomplishment.

“It feels good,” said Smith in a post-tournament interview on Sunday. “To get the first game under our belt in a win obviously we had quite a long pre-season and had a lot of scrimmages so it was fun to finally play the first game.”

Smith joined the WKBL on Sept. 16 when she was drafted first in the WKBL rookie draft and was picked up by the Blueminx after having played in the WNBA pre-season and two games with the Los Angeles Sparks.

According to WKBL rules, non-Korean players can join the WKBL rookie draft if at least one of their parents is Korean. Smith was born in California in 1999 to a Korean mother and an American father.

Despite topping the 3x3 basketball qualifiers for the United States national team and also being named MVP, Smith chose to move her career to Korea. The decision came because if she played for the United States, that would mean she was never able to appear for Korea.

Even before the start of the season, all eyes were on Smith, especially because she comes from a family of basketball. Her father is a former basketball player and coach of a university team, and her grandfather is former Milwaukee Bucks player Fred "Lucky" Smith. Her brother Jamal plays in the Armenian basketball league, her uncle is a former WNBA coach and her mother also played in high school.

“I don’t really feel nervous from people’s expectations,” said Smith.

“Like I said, I try not to listen to the media or what people have to say. I just go out and try to play my hardest to get a win at the end of the day. I just want to show that we play hard as a team and we play together. I feel if we can do that we can win a lot of games.”

The 2022-23 WKBL season kicked off on Sunday, marking the 32nd season of domestic women’s basketball. The season will end on March 3 next year.

There are six clubs, the Samsung Life Blueminx based in Yongin, Gyeonggi, the Shinhan Bank S-birds in Incheon, the Woori Bank Wibees of Asan, South Chungcheong, Hana 1Q based in Bucheon, Gyeonggi, the BNK Sum based in Busan and the KB Stars based in Cheongju, North Chungcheong.

The six clubs will each play 15 matches in the regular season for a total of 90 matches.

Playoffs will follow the regular season starting March 19, with the No. 4 club facing the top club and the No. 2 club facing the No. 3 club in a best-of-three semifinals. The winners of the semifinals will compete in a best-of-five final.

The defending champions are the KB Stars, who last season secured the top seat in the WKBL with six games still left to play. With a total of 23 wins and one loss, the KB Stars became the first team to win the season title in 24 games since 2008, when the WKBL first combined the winter and summer seasons.

However, this season, the Stars are starting the 2022-23 season without star player Park Ji-su.

Reigning WKBL MVP Park was not in attendance on the Star’s first match on Sunday, almost three months after she dropped out of national team training due to a panic disorder.

The WKBL will continue on Wednesday as Woori Bank Wibees face BNK Sum.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]