“When I talk to NBA fans around me, they say they don’t know who to root for in this Finals, and I’m kind of the same way. If you look at the Denver Nuggets, they’re having an incredible run centred around Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, so I think it would be a shame if they didn’t win it all, but if you look at the Miami Heat, the story of their leader, Jimmy Butler, and the story of many of their players is poignant, and the underdog story of the team itself is also resonating with many fans, as evidenced by the miracle of the No. 8 seed.”

This season’s NBA is so exciting and entertaining. There are so many different stories and twists, and new faces are making their mark. This is also true for Seoul Samsung coach Kim Hyo-beom (40‧189cm). From his perspective as a coach on the field, or purely as a fan, he says it’s been an exciting playoffs no matter how you look at it, and the ongoing finals seem to be pitting the best teams against each other.먹튀검증

“I remember watching a lot of the key people on both teams when I was coaching in the G League, so that makes it even more exciting. I have an assistant coach in Denver, Charles Klask, who is like a mentor to me. I’ll watch a game and I’ll see him behind coach Mike Malone with his head down, writing something down, and that’s him. He’s the one who introduced me to the G-League and had a lot of good things to say to me, and he was with the Pistons at the time, and it’s been a while, but I’m still grateful for that. So, for the sake of argument, I like to root for Denver a little bit more, but I also like Miami. If it wasn’t for my coach, I don’t know if I would be completely neutral.”

He also has fond memories of Miami starting point guard Gabe Vincent (27‧191cm). Four years ago, when he was a G League coach, Hyo-bum Kim noticed Vincent, who was playing in the G League with Sacramento, but no one paid much attention to him at the time. Kim was different. He saw too much potential. He strongly argued that the team should take Vincent.

“At the time, Vincent was literally just a G-League player, not tied to a two-way contract or anything, so it wasn’t hard to bring him in. I insisted that he should be brought in via trade and have a two-way contract. I was an assistant coach, so I was able to make that statement, and the head coach agreed. I don’t think he was a difficult player to get, but I think the higher-ups at the time judged him harshly, because I thought he was a good reader, a good passer and a good defender. It’s a small personal memory that nobody will remember now, but every time I see Vincent, I think about it.”

If Vincent had a high opinion of the underrated Duncan Robinson (29‧201cm), the opposite was true.

The first time I saw him, I really didn’t like him. He played against my G-League team, the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the Miami Heat, and he took eight 3-pointers and made maybe one, and it wasn’t like he was really good at anything else, which was a little puzzling given that he was on a two-way contract, but in retrospect, I had a problem with it. You can’t judge a player based on one or two games, you need to look at the context, and of course there’s the fact that he wasn’t on our team, but I think he had a particularly bad game in that game and that’s all I could see, so I think I jumped the gun a little bit.”

Robinson also reminds him of Lee Hyun-jung (23‧202cm).

“When I look at Robinson at that time, I think of Hyunjoong, because he had just come back from an injury, and he hadn’t been able to get his form up. I saw him in that moment, and not too long ago, Hyunjoong was in that state. He had recovered from his injury, but he had a long layoff, and he was in an unfamiliar environment in the league, and he had to adapt, so he needed time to get his form up.”

Since then, Robinson has become an NBA favourite as a shooter. This has taught Kim a lot, too.

“He had some bad games at the time, but his stats were also bad, including his scoring average. In a way, Robinson was expected to be a role player, not the kind of technician-type prospect I usually see. You can see that his value is completely different depending on how he is used. That being said, I think he’s really starting to find his identity in Miami’s system, and he’s really starting to play to his strengths, which is his three-point shot, as well as a variety of cut-in plays.”