When I was a school kid in Korea, I had a chance to learn about American NBA stars. The only one I still can remember is "압둘자바, Abdul Jabbar", perhaps because the name sounded funny to me. Among recent players, I like John
Stockton (photo). One reason is that he is handicapped with respect to his height. Of course he is still way taller than me, but he is shorter compared to other players. Still he had played successfully in NBA for many years (I think he retired a few years ago). It is always a pleasure to see a great achievement by a physically and/or mentally inferior person.Speaking of heights in sports, there was a talented soccer player in Korean national team long time ago. His name is 김진국. Like Stockton, he was also very short (~160 cm high). That was one reason why he received lots of attention from soccer fans.
The University where I am working currently boasts a very strong women's basketball team, which had won NCAA national championship eight times. The team has had only one coach for over 30 years!!! She is a very strong woman and a very talented coach. She managed more than 1000 wins during her tenure, the most wins in the NCAA history. In addition to her coaching skills, I have been deeply impressed by her loyalty to one team for such a long period of time. Shortly after a season is over, coaching markets are open. Some are fired due to team's poor performance, some simply moves to place which offers better money. It is rare to see that one coach sticks to a team longer than 5 years. In other words, sports are one big business where money governs nearly everything. I bet the aforementioned coach has been (better) offered by many other teams. But for some reason, she sticks to the same team for long time, a rare case that impresses me and other people a lot. There must be something else more than money. ~°|°~
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