Ex-basketballer solidifies status as TV personality

"Goliath" Seo Jang-hoon entertains celebrities and TV viewers on TV talk shows. / Screen capture from YouTube

Former basketball player Seo Jang-hoon has fared well as a TV personality.

With his verbal wit that seemingly puts him on par with other veteran TV entertainers, Seo, 41, is raising expectations from viewers and local media outlets as to his future star power in the nation’s TV industry.

Seo now regularly appears on three TV talk shows ― tvN’s “High School Kings Top 10,” Mnet’s “Yaman TV” and MBC’s “Three Wheels” ― as a host.

Seo Jang-hoon while playing for Incheon ET Land Elephants / Korea Times file

“When he began to frequently make TV appearances on entertainment shows earlier this year, he used to deny that he was an entertainer,” a media report said Thursday about Seo, who is managed by MYSTIC Entertainment. “But now he has got his grounding as a TV personality. He makes people laugh with killer comments that are as witty as ones made by veteran entertainers.”

On Wednesday’s “High School Kings Top 10,” where four MCs invite high school students to a recording studio and share their stories, Seo traded comical verbal volleys with his co-host, Jeong Hyeong-don, boasting his promising potential as a TV personality.

“It may be safe to say that Seo’s change of career from a professional basketball player to a TV entertainer has been successful,” the report added.

The 207-centimeter-tall funnyman first attracted attention as a basketball player when he played for the Yonsei University basketball team as a center in the early 1990s.

He played professional basketball from when he joined the Seoul SK Knights in 1998 until he retired after playing for the Busan KT Sonic Boom in 2013, earning his nickname “Goliath.” He was selected as a member of national basketball team for the 15th Asian Games in the Qatari capital of Doha in 2006.