By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
Former National Basketball Association (NBA) star players will visit Korea next month for the NBA Asia Challenge.
A team coached by Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will play the Korean Basketball League (KBL) All-Star team on Sept. 5 in Seoul and the ET Land BlackSlamer on Sept. 6 in Incheon.
Abdul-Jabbar's team will feature Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, former NBA All-Stars Tim Hardaway and Vlade Divac and seven-time NBA champion Robert Horry.
Five players from the NBA Development League, the minor league of the U.S. basketball league, will also join the team.
``I look very very forward to coming there, having fun and enjoying all your country, playing a game of basketball and teaching the game of basketball. Thanks for having me over there,'' Hardaway, a Sydney Olympic gold medalist, said in a telephone interview.
``I can still play the game, and I can still do the killer crossover, I still can shoot the jump shot, so the fans can still expect all of that when I come over there to play. I am going to show them all of that when I come over there to play basketball.''
Abdul-Jabbar, 62, who played six seasons for the Milwaukee Bucks and 14 for the Los Angeles Lakers, is the all-time scoring leader in the NBA with 38,387 points, well ahead of runner-up Karl Malone (36,928) and No. 3 Michael Jordan (32,292). Shaquille O'Neal, who moved to the Cleveland Cavaliers during the off-season, is the highest-ranked active player on 27,619.
The 2.18-meter center, who was known for his sky-hook shot, is also third all-time in both rebounds and blocks with 17,440 and 3,189, respectively.
The former UCLA standout, who led the Bruins to the three-time NCAA champion, won the NBA Championship six times, one with the Bucks and five with the Lakers.
The 19-time All-Star was named the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) six times and the Finals MVP twice.
The other visiting NBA players have relatively less-brilliant stats than those of Abdul-Jabbar, but they might receive much warmer welcomes from local NBA fans, who actually watched them play in the 1990s.
The NBA has been catching on in Korea since the league dispatched its star-studded Dream Team to the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.
Former Atlanta Hawk Wilkins, nicknamed the ``Human Highlight Film'' for his flamboyant slam dunks, scored 26,668 points during his career, 10th on the all-time list, and was selected to the All-Star team nine straight times from 1986 to 1994.
Wilkins, 49, who won the Slam Dunk contest twice, is well known to Korean fans, as he lost to Jordan in the final of the 1988 contest when the Chicago Bulls great dunked the ball after taking off from the free throw line.
Hardaway, who played for the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat in the prime of his career from 1989 to 2001, was a five-time NBA All-Star and notched 15,373 points and 7,095 assists.
With his killer crossover dribble, the point guard established himself as one of the best players at the position, receiving five All-Star invitations. The Chicago native, 42, is the second fastest player, behind Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson, to crack 5,000 points and 2,500 assists.
Divac, a 2.16-meter Serbian center, is one of four players who reached 13,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists and 1,500 blocked shots.
The other three are Kevin Garnett, Hakeem Olajuwon and Abdul-Jabbar.
Divac, who was traded to the defunct Charlotte Hornets for then-rookie Kobe Bryant in 1996, played 16 seasons and averaged 11.8 points and 8.2 boards.
Horry, a clutch shooting forward, won seven championship rings with the Houston Rockets (2), San Antonio Spurs (2) and the Lakers (3), and is the only non-Boston Celtic to win seven or more titles.
The KBL All-Stars will include former Portland Trailblazer Ha Seung-jin, Lee Sang-min of the Samsung Thunders and SK Knights forward Bang Sung-yoon.