Lee Jung-hyun
No. 3 – Seoul Samsung Thunders
PositionGuard
LeagueKBL
Personal information
Born (1987-03-03) March 3, 1987
Gwangju, South Korea
Listed height6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Listed weight196 lb (89 kg)
Career information
High schoolGwangju High School
CollegeYonsei University
Playing career2010–present
Career history
2010–2017Anyang KGC
2013–2015→Sangmu
2017–2022Jeonju KCC Egis
2022–presentSeoul Samsung Thunders
Career highlights and awards
Medals
FIBA Asia Cup
Bronze medal – third place2017 Lebanon
Asian Games
Bronze medal – third place2018 Jakarta–PalembangTeam
Korean name
Hangul
이정현
Hanja
李政玹
Revised RomanizationI Jeong-hyeon
McCune–ReischauerYi Chŏnghyŏn

Lee Jung-hyun (born March 3, 1987) is a South Korean professional basketball player for Jeonju KCC Egis in the Korean Basketball League and the South Korean national team.[1]

Early life

Lee played baseball and football throughout elementary school. A promising football prospect, he had considered becoming a professional football player.[2] He started playing basketball in sixth grade when his elementary school decided to start a basketball team and a classmate recruited him to join the team since he already had an athletic background. As a student at Gwangju High School he gained the attention of college recruiters for his shooting skills.[2]

Career

College

Lee played college basketball for Yonsei University. He was largely unnoticed during his freshman year due to the presence of Kim Tae-sul and Yang Hee-jong, both in their senior season. During his senior year he was Yonsei's leader in points, assists and rebounds and led the team to the final of the National Basketball Festival (the main collegiate competition at that time) for the first time in five years.[3][4]

Professional

Anyang KT&G / Anyang KGC (2010–2017)

In the 2010 KBL rookie draft, Lee was drafted by Busan KT Sonicboom second overall and then traded to Anyang KT&G in a player exchange.[5] Although he scored 19 points and impressed in his debut, he spent his first two seasons as the sixth man and went on to the win the Sixth Man Award at the 2011-12 KBL awards ceremony.[2][6] He enlisted for mandatory military service in April 2013 and joined the Sangmu team after completing basic training. He was discharged in January 2015, returning to the team roster immediately.[7][8]

During the 2015-16 season Lee was a mainstay of the Anyang team which reached the semi-finals of the play-offs, especially in clutch situations.[9] He was the only Anyang player voted into the KBL Best 5 that season.[10]

Lee was part of the Anyang team which won a rare "double" during the 2016-17 season, winning both the regular season as well as the KBL Championship. The top-scoring domestic player that season, he was nominated for the KBL Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) award but lost to teammate Oh Se-keun.[11][12] Despite his stellar record, Lee instead became better known for an incident during the playoffs, when Anyang KGC met Seoul Samsung Thunders in the finals. During Game 2, he elbowed Thunders shooting guard Lee Gwan-hee, his former Yonsei teammate, in the neck while defending him and latter forcefully pushed him down on the ground as retaliation. Both were disciplined and fined for unsporting behavior, with Lee Jung-hyun whistled for a foul and Lee Gwan-hee being ejected for an unsportsmanlike foul and suspended for the next game.[13] As a result, he was booed by irate Thunders fans throughout Game 3 and failed to replicate his form, only scoring 9 points.[14]

Jeonju KCC Egis (2017–2022)

After his contract with Anyang KGC ended, Lee became a free agent and joined Jeonju KCC Egis for the 2017-18 season. In December 2017, he reached a milestone of appearing in his 300th consecutive KBL-sanctioned "A" match (professional match).[15] He was voted KBL Most Valuable Player of the 2018-19 season as he led the league in points scored, averaging 17.2 points, among domestic players.[16][17] His win made him the first Jeonju KCC Egis player in 20 years to win MVP and only the second MVP winner not from a Championship-winning team or league top-three team since the KBL was established.[12] In December 2019, he was nominated for and won the Male Basketball Player of the Year, voted for by league coaches and his KBL peers, at the annual Dong-a Sports Awards honoring domestic professional athletes across all disciplines.[18]

Lee was a key player in KCC winning the 2020-21 regular season and reaching the finals of the play-offs, losing the KBL Championship title to his former team Anyang KGC.[19] However, he also became a controversial figure when the KBL released a list of players who were caught "flopping" (faking fouls) that season and his name was at the top of the list.[20]

Lee's appearance record has extended into the 2021-22 season.[18][21] in December, he reached the record of playing in 500 consecutive KBL-sanctioned "A" games.[22][23]

National team

Lee participated in the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup.[24] However, his form during the group stage was inconsistent. In South Korea's opening Group C game against hosts Lebanon, Lee failed to score all five attempted three-pointers and his and shooting guard Heo Ung's lackluster performance around the perimeter were specifically pointed out as a major cause for South Korea's shock loss to the host nation.[25] He bounced back to score 19 points in the next game, a win against Kazakhstan.[26] For the next few games, his assist tally increased as he was switched into a combo guard role rather than a forward-shooting guard swingman.

Lee was in the final 12-man squad and named captain for the 2019 FIBA World Cup.[27][2][28] In their opening Group B game against fifth-ranked Argentina, he scored 15 points, the only South Korean player other than Ra Gun-ah to score in the double digits.[29] He was injured in the game against China and was forced to sit out of their last game of the tournament, against the Ivory Coast.[30]

Controversy

Lee's otherwise stellar 2016–17 season was marred by his infamous confrontation with Lee Gwan-hee during the playoffs. It has been speculated that both players, who are not usually known for such physical confrontations on the court, had already been on bad terms since their university days but both players and other fellow Yonsei alumni have declined to further elaborate on the matter.[31] Ever since the incident, any games in which the two players meet has received more attention from the media and fans.[32][31] Their alleged "feud" has been indirectly referenced numerous times during "draft day" for the annual All-Star Game, with fellow players and coaches noting that they should not be placed in the same team.[33][34]

After departing Anyang KGC, Lee gained the moniker eu-ak-sae (Hangul: 으악새), which is the Korean equivalent of the onomatopoeia "Whoops!", from the media and fans due to his "flopping" (faking fouls).[35] In the 2020–21 season alone, he tallied eleven fake fouls, the most of any domestic player and nearly twice as many as the second-placed Lee Dae-sung.[20][36][37]

Personal life

Lee is a fan of his hometown baseball team Kia Tigers and has been spotted attending their games during his off-season.[18][2]

Since 2019, Lee has been occasionally referred to as "big Lee Jung-hyun" (큰 정현) by other players and in the media due to another younger player having the exact same name being called up to the senior national team for the same game.[38][39] "Small Lee Jung-hyun" (작은 정현) is also an alumnus of Yonsei University and was drafted by Goyang Orion Orions in the 2021 rookie draft.[40] Although their names are spelled the same in Hangul, their given names are written differently in Hanja.[38]

References

  1. ↑ FIBA profile
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "[농구인생 PEOPLE] 노력의 결실, 국가대표 주장 이정현!". Basketball Life (농구인생) (in Korean). 2 September 2019.
  3. ↑ "연세대，5년만에 농구대잔치 결승에…". Kukmin Ilbo (in Korean). 27 December 2009.
  4. ↑ "[2009농구대잔치]<개막D-2>이정현 '진가를 보여라'(동영상)" (in Korean). BasketKorea.com. 15 December 2009.
  5. ↑ "KT&G , 드래프트 1-2순위로 박찬희-이정현 지명(종합)". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 3 February 2010.
  6. ↑ "식스맨상 이정현 "이상범 감독님께 감사드린다"". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 9 April 2012.
  7. ↑ "이정현·정창영 등 29일 상무 입대". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 9 April 2013.
  8. ↑ "<프로농구전망대> 이정현·정창영 등 상무 전역 선수들 복귀". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). 26 January 2015.
  9. ↑ "에이스 믿은 사령탑, 기대에 부응한 에이스" (in Korean). BasketKorea.com. 3 March 2016.
  10. ↑ "48 vs 49 태풍 이겨낸 양동근". The Hankyoreh (in Korean). 22 February 2016.
  11. ↑ "오세근·이정현, 내가 MVP를 받아야 하는 이유". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 14 March 2017.
  12. 1 2 "프로농구 시즌 MVP 이정현 "2년 전 상 놓친 게 전화위복"". JoongAng Ilbo (in Korean). 20 March 2019.
  13. ↑ "'야유'에 마음고생...욕심 내려놓은 '인삼공사 슈터' 이정현". JoongAng Ilbo (in Korean). 27 April 2017.
  14. ↑ "종결자 양희종, 4쿼터에 뒤집었다". JoongAng Ilbo (in Korean). 27 April 2017.
  15. ↑ "[기록] '금강불괴' 이정현, 300경기 연속 출전기록 달성". Jumpball (in Korean). 26 December 2017.
  16. ↑ "4위팀 KCC 이정현, 프로농구 MVP 영예". The Hankyoreh (in Korean). 20 March 2019.
  17. ↑ "Lee Jung-Hyun, Rah Gun-A claim MVP awards in KBL while Muharraq rise as Bahrain champions". FIBA. 26 March 2019.
  18. 1 2 3 "'KBL의 철인' KCC 이정현의 첫 동아스포츠대상 방문기". The Dong-a Ilbo (in Korean). 11 December 2019.
  19. ↑ "이정현 22득점…KCC, 현대모비스 꺾고 선두 질주". The Hankyoreh (in Korean). 3 March 2021.
  20. 1 2 "프로농구 KCC 이정현, 페이크 파울 10회 개인 최다". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 9 April 2021.
  21. ↑ "KCC 이정현 "'35살 양동근' 보며 자극 받아…팀 기여도 높이는 농구할 것"". The Dong-a Ilbo (in Korean). 26 October 2021.
  22. ↑ "'금강불괴' 이정현, 500경기 연속출전 대기록 세웠지만…KCC 5연패". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 25 December 2021.
  23. ↑ "'500경기 연속' 이정현, KCC 지키는 '최고의 캡틴'". Jumpball (in Korean). 25 December 2021.
  24. ↑ 2017 FIBA Asia Cup profile
  25. ↑ "[아시아컵] 임동섭 3점 터진 대표팀, 이정현 침묵 아쉬웠다!" (in Korean). BasketKorea.com. 9 August 2017.
  26. ↑ "'이정현 19점' 한국 농구, 아시아컵 카자흐스탄에 61점차 대승". JoongAng Ilbo (in Korean). 11 August 2017.
  27. ↑ "Junghyun Lee 2019 FIBA World Cup profile". FIBA.
  28. ↑ "국가대표 — 2019 FIBA 농구 월드컵" (in Korean). Korea Basketball Association.
  29. ↑ "농구대표팀 주장 이정현 "실력 차 절감…후반 집중력 아쉽다"". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). 1 September 2019.
  30. ↑ "김상식 감독 "코트디부아르전 9명으로…포기하지 않겠다"". The Dong-a Ilbo (in Korean). 8 September 2019.
  31. 1 2 "또 충돌. 브레이크없는 이정현과 이관희, 그들은 왜 화해 못할까". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 6 December 2020.
  32. ↑ "뜨거웠던 이관희VS이정현, 주인공은 김지완…KCC 2연패 탈출". Jumpball (in Korean). 2 November 2021.
  33. ↑ "[스포츠타임]'올스타전 전패' 허웅의 첫 승 도전… KBL 올스타전 관전포인트 2" (in Korean). SPOTV. 14 January 2022.
  34. ↑ "'이정현 대 이관희' KBL 올스타전 빛낸 찐라이벌전". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 20 January 2020.
  35. ↑ "농구 이정현, '으악새' 오명 벗고 MVP". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 21 March 2019.
  36. ↑ "역시 '으악새' 이정현". The Dong-a Ilbo (in Korean). 14 May 2021.
  37. ↑ "[꿈을 만나다] 이정현 "동작 커서 '으악새' 오명 생겼지만 어린 선수들은 배우면 안 돼"". Hankook Ilbo (in Korean). 16 October 2019.
  38. 1 2 "[인터뷰]큰 이정현 "신기하네"·작은 이정현 "많이 배울게요"". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 18 February 2019.
  39. ↑ ""신인왕 경쟁요? 3순위 작은정현도 있어요"". JoongAng Ilbo (in Korean). 2 November 2021.
  40. ↑ "선배 이정현 패스, 후배 이정현 슛~". The Dong-a Ilbo (in Korean). 30 January 2019.
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