The Great Road War, Who’s the Steel King This Season?
Steals are one of the most aggressive defenses. It”s not just about stopping the opponent, it”s about taking the ball away from them and giving them the offense. This can be done in a number of ways, such as intercepting a pass or pressuring the dribbler into a mistake. The important thing is that if you intercept the ball at a crucial moment, your opponent will feel like they”ve been hit with a counterpunch and it can have a decisive impact on the flow of the game.
In order to intercept the ball, you need to have quick feet to follow the movement and active hands. They also need to be able to read passes, which is why none of the top players in the history of steals can play defense. Joo Hee-jung, Shin Ki-sung, Lee Sang-min, Kim Seung-hyun, Yang Dong-geun, Shin Myung-ho, Park Chan-hee, 텍사스홀덤사이트 Moon Sung-gon, and many others are excellent defenders.
In 27 seasons, Koreans have led the league in steals 18 times and foreigners nine times. The late Chris Williams, a specialist point forward, played only three seasons in Korea, but he is the only foreigner to finish first twice and to share the steals title with Brandon Brown. He left the league for the last time in 2006-07, but returned in 2011-12 to win the title again.
If he had stayed in the Korean League as long as some of the longest-serving foreign players, he would have set a number of records, including the steal king. The all-time record for most steals is held by Michael Elliott, a foreign player who played for Daewoo in his first season. He averaged a whopping 3.90 steals per game. You might say that’s a lot of steals for a single game, but that’s a season average.
The period from the original to 2010 is known as the heyday of point guards. Nowadays, we have dual guards who play the 1 or 2, but back then, there were a lot of pure point guards who dominated the game with their vision and passing game. Each of these players also excelled in steals, finishing in the top 10 at least once.
Examples include Joo Hee-jung (2), Shin Ki-sung (1), and Lee Sang-min (1). Kim Seung-hyun, in particular, was so good at defense that it belied his small stature (175 cm). Normally, a player as short as Kim Seung-hyun would be targeted for mismatches on defense, even if he has a decent offense, but that didn’t work for him in his prime.
First of all, he’s incredibly fast and diligent, and he sticks to his matchup like a sore thumb the entire game. Even if they tried to use his height to their advantage, he would still touch the ball with his hands just as they were about to make a move, disrupting their rhythm. His strength from his solid weight was so good that he was not easily pushed back even if a player who was bigger than him came to fight.
In particular, his ability to steal the ball in a split second if he was caught off guard was outstanding. It was effective not only on the domestic stage but also on the international stage. To prove it, he led the league in steals four times, averaging a whopping 3.24 in the 2001-02 season. This is second on the all-time list behind the original Elliott. Only three other players have ever averaged more than three steals, including Elliott, Kim Seung-hyun, and Gerald Walker.
Yang Dong-geun and Park Chan-hee are two players that cannot be left out when discussing the No. 1 defenders. They have two and one first-place finishes, respectively. Shin Myung-ho, one of the first names that comes to mind when you think of steals, has surprisingly only been crowned the king of steals once. In the last two seasons, for example, a foreign player has taken the top spot. Murphy Holloway and Asem Marei are two of them.
This season, it”s a close race between domestic and foreign players. Lee Jung-hyun, who left SONO to become one of the league’s leading aces, is leading the way (1.90), while Paris Bass (KT) is in second place (1.72). Both are known for their offensive prowess. Moon Sung-gon, the league’s best defender, is close behind with 1.71. It will be interesting to see who will be the final winner of the battle of the great roads, whether it will be a foreign steel king for the third consecutive year or a native player taking over.