Lee Hyun-joong, who is considered Korea's best forward, will play for a while in the Japanese professional basketball league after his first season in Australia.
An A2G agency in charge of Lee Hyun-joong's management said on the 19th, "Lee Hyun-joong will play for Osaka Evesa in the Japanese B League until May," adding, "He is set to make his debut on the 20th."
Lee Hyun-joong, a member of the Illawarra Hawks of the Australian Basketball League (NBL), finished his first season in Australia with Melbourne United in the third round of the 2023-2024 NBL semifinal playoff (94-100 losses) on the 13th.
He played for an average of 17 minutes in 27 regular league games, scoring 7.4 points and 3.9 rebounds.
He ranks fifth in overall goal tally and third in rebounding. He has a 45 percent field goal success rate. He also has a shooter-down record of 40 percent for his three-point success rate.
Lee Hyun-joong, who wants to join the NBA on the world's best stage, will move to the U.S. again after the end of the Japanese professional basketball season. He will train there and play in the NBA Summer League.
Lee Hyun-joong tried to enter the NBA by challenging the 2022 draft when he was a senior at Davidson University in the U.S., but he was not selected in the rookie draft.
When the NBA's entry through the draft failed, he signed with the G League (NBA's lower league) team to aim for a "call-up" or play in the Summer League to impress NBA teams.
However, he ultimately decided to go to Australia in July last year in search of an opportunity to play. The Australian professional league is generally higher than Asian leagues such as China, Japan, and the Philippines.
According to Lee Hyun-joong, Illawarra signed a three-year contract last year and decided to let him go at any time during the contract period if the NBA team offered to join.
Osaka, where Lee Hyun-joong plays for a while, ranks seventh (15 wins and 27 losses) among the eight teams in the western part of the B-League. This is the current team of Sean Long, who played as a foreign player for Ulsan Hyundai Mobis. 스포츠토토
In the B-League, three Korean players are playing, including guard Lee Dae-sung (Mikawa), Yang Jae-min (Sendai), and Jang Min-guk (Nagasaki).