A new focus: Storm's Jung Sun-Min is WNBA's first Korean player

Their peephole is the Korean media's camera.

It clicks pictures of Jung Sun-Min running. Jung Sun-Min shooting. Jung Sun-Min smiling in a Storm jersey while cupping a basketball on her hip and giving a thumbs up — the universal sign that everything is copacetic.

Jung is recognized by South Korea's 47.3 million as the "Pele" of her game. When she is home, she is stopped and asked for autographs, photos, or a simple hello.

"She's the best player ever in the history of Korea women's basketball," said Yoon Sueng-Yok, a reporter for Sports Daily in Seoul, one of several journalists sent to Seattle to cover Jung.

"There are already a couple of major-league baseball players (from Korea) and a few soccer players playing in Europe," Yoon said through a translator. "But we didn't expect to send a basketball player to the WNBA. This is a historic event."

For U.S. fans, the peephole is Jung herself, the 6-foot-1 Korean. Much like Yao Ming, she's the vessel for a voyage into an unknown world for most — Asian basketball.

In King County, where the Korean population is 20,005, according to the 2000 census, Jung made front-page news and was covered by five Korean-American media outlets for her exhibition debut in Tacoma last week.

But when she was drafted by the WNBA in April, you could almost hear the tumbleweeds blowing as announcers Ann Meyers and Dorris Burke tried to think of something to say. Both were shocked that Storm coach Anne Donovan and general manager Billy McKinney used the No. 8 pick to select a player from Asia.

And they aren't the only ones.

As thousands of eyeballs soak in the Jung images, many will wonder if she is going to survive in the league. Jung, 28, is the third WNBA player from Asia and the first Korean. Instead of being acknowledged for her achievements as the determined leader of the 2000 Olympic semifinal team and winner of two ABC (Asian Basketball Championship) titles, Jung has landed in America's show-me society.

"I have a little pressure on me," Jung said through her interpreter. "If I say there is no pressure, that would be a lie."

Sushi is sushi

"It's kinda like Tacoma," Jung said when trying to describe her hometown.

Masan, South Korea, lies along the Korean Strait far south of Seoul. Jung was born Oct. 12, 1974, to a shop-owner father and homemaker mother and she has a younger brother, who also plays basketball.

Jung, who has a perpetual smile when she's not playing, was spotted in physical-education class for having a knack for basketball because of her speed. She attended Masan Girls' High School, the high caliber program equivalent of Christ the King High in Queens, New York, where Storm guard Sue Bird whet her skills.

The time period is so long ago for Jung now, though. At 14 she decided she was going to be a professional basketball player and by 17 she was kissing mom and dad goodbye to start her new life in Seoul.

After five years playing with the Gwangju Sinsegye Coolcats in the six-team Women's Korean Basketball League, Jung was ready for a new challenge.

The WNBA.

"I wanted to play with the best players in the world," Jung said.

Language and culture shock could keep Jung from displaying her full potential, however.

Our wild hand movements when we speak are viewed as disrespectful in Korea. Players are submissive to their coaches. And making a mistake is like committing a crime.

Some of Jung's favorite foods are pizza and hamburgers. Starbucks coffee is her beverage of choice. Still, though, she can't get enough sushi, which reminds her of her home by the sea.

"Coming here is a big adjustment," said Joanne Park, 24, who moved from Korea at 14. She is Jung's interpreter, but is still negotiating a deal to be full-time. "It was difficult for me because things are so different and you don't understand the language."

In some cases, Jung doesn't need Park. Ask Jung what she likes to do in her free time and she quickly responds, "Internet!" before the translation can be made. And who's the better basketball player between Jung and her brother, Hun-Jeoung?

"Me!" she says with a wide smile and thumb pointing at her chest.

Asian connection

Blood saturated a towel. In the hysteria of tending to a bloody nose, Donovan heard her teammate utter the same sentence repeatedly: "I deserved to get hit. I turned the ball over."

"It was a nightmare," Donovan said of parts of her experience playing in Japan from 1984-88.

There was actually a clause in Donovan's contract that her coach couldn't hit her. But for the Japanese players it was woven into the game like the nets on the hoops. You made a mistake, you were given a black eye, kicked, or worse.

"He was a total, male dominating coach," Donovan said. "A male chauvinist kind of guy. One time it looked like he was going to go at me and I was ready for him, wanting him to hit me, but a teammate stepped in the way. It put an end to the abuse."

Donovan is the primary reason Seattle was the only city Jung and her agent, Chris Kim, seriously considered. Other reasons were weather ("Sun doesn't like cold," Kim said), All-Star teammates Bird and Lauren Jackson, and the close-knit Korean community, which has already contacted Park about welcome dinners.

"She understands how to treat the Asian players," Kim said of Donovan. "I know Sun will be very comfortable and do well with Anne as coach."

Jung is one of seven international players (including Australian center Suzy Batkovic, who won't join the team until midseason) on the Storm roster.

She made $100,000 last season in Korea. With the Storm, Jung signed a three-year contract with an option for the final season that will pay her $37,000 this summer.

"It wasn't about the money for Sun," Kim said. "She wanted to challenge herself and see if she's up to that level, which I know she is. That's why she wanted to be here."

Jung couldn't wait to arrive in Seattle. She said she was worried about the "depressed people" because of the rain, but after a week said it was beautiful.

"It feels like home," Jung said. "I had some good sushi in Redmond. The only thing is everyone speaks too fast."

Adapting her game

Practice is practically a cakewalk.

In Asia, teams practice twice a day, even on game day. Sometimes Americans are given the mornings off, but no one is dismissed from the endless running.

"I don't know how the girls over there do it, all that running," said Sacramento Monarchs forward La'Keshia Frett, who played in Korea during the offseason. "I don't know how their knees hold up. I don't think the coaches care, either. It's an intense schedule."

In Korea, Jung was a center. However, the motion offense teams tend to run in Japan, Korea and China basically eliminates Naismith's original definition of the position. All players dart around the perimeter looking for a shot.

With the Storm, Donovan said she couldn't decide if Jung is best as a small forward or power forward — which is a positive. Unlike Storm forward Adia Barnes, who played power forward at Arizona and moved to small forward in the pros, Jung's transition is a little smoother because she had to handle the ball and shoot from the outside.

Jung shot 46 percent from the field in five years with the Coolcats, averaging 24.4 points. In international play, she held her own against Los Angeles center Lisa Leslie and Washington forward Chamique Holdsclaw. Still, lingering over Jung's head is the stigma that Asian players can't translate their game to the more physical WNBA.

"There's a ton of misconceptions out there," said Houston Comets coach Van Chancellor, who scouted Jung during the World Championships in China last fall. "They say all country boys from Mississippi are ignorant and I'm from Mississippi. They say all Asian players can't play in the WNBA and you know what? My thinking is this girl can just play."

With the season starting Thursday, all anyone can do is peer through his or her peephole to see what becomes of Jung.

Her voyage will be documented on a new Web site, www.sun17.com, which launches Thursday. The WNBA is also working on broadcasting some Storm games in Korea, according to the league.

"Sun has a great opportunity here to really set a precedent for the Asians," Donovan said. "I hope there's not too much pressure because she wasn't brought in here to save the team. She's a smart player and that's the only kind that could make this transition. I think she's going to be fine."

Jayda Evans: 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com

International flavor
The Storm has six foreign players, and will add another when Australian center Suzy Batkovic joins the team in midseason.
P	Player	Home country
G	Tully Bevilaqua	Australia
G	Sandy Brondello	Australia
C	Simone Edwards	Jamaica
F	Lauren Jackson	Australia
F	Jung Sun-Min	Korea
C	Kamila Vodichkova	Czech Republic