Tall, tested Lee beefs up Korean team

MANILA, Philippines - South Korea picked Lee Seung-jun (formerly Eric Sandrin) over Moon Tae-young (Greg Stevenson) as the team’s naturalized player in the 27th FIBA Asia Championship set to kick off Aug. 1 at the MOA Arena in Pasay and Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.

Coach Yoo Jae-Hak went for the taller and more experienced Lee, saying the team would need his ceiling and poise as they bid in the 16-nation meet slated from Aug. 1-11.

The South Korean head coach made the decision upon their return to Seoul from Taipei where they finished third in the 2013 Jones Cup.

“All our opponents especially in the preliminary round have many players taller than 200 cms. We need height to counter them,” said Yoo in a fibaasia.net report.

The Koreans, third placers in the last Asian meet in Wujan, China behind the hosts and the Jordanians, are bracketed with the Chinese, the Iranians and the Malaysians in the first round of the elims.

The top three in the group advance to the second round playing the top three from Group D composed of Kazakhstan, Bahrain, India and Thailand.

The Koreans need the 6-foot-8 Lee to help match up with the likes of Chinese main man Yi Jianlian and Iranian behemoth Hamed Haddadi.

Lee, 35, is a seasoned international campaigner, having been to the Americas, Europe and Asia as a baller.

After spending his five-year collegiate eligibility with Portland and Seattle Pacific, Lee suited up with the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Summer League then with the Sacramento Kings in the NBA preseason in 2002.

Drifting with the Singapore Slingers in 2008, Lee had an incident with Filipino players Ranidel de Ocampo and Homer Se in an invitational tourney.

The trash-talking American-Korean provoked the then Air21 players De Ocampo and Se. De Ocampo walked under Lee while going for a dunk. And while down on the floor, Lee drew a kick from Se in the ugly incident.

Lee had an earlier stint with the Korean national team in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, an event where he’s not restricted by FIBA’s statutes on dual citizenship.

Despite his dual citizenship, Lee’s considered a naturalized player under the FIBA’s revised statutes, just like the case of most of the new Fil-foreign players in the PBA.