1st place: Park Jeong-woong. Provided by KBL
2nd place: Lee Geun-jun. Provided by KBL
For the first time in professional basketball rookie draft history, high school students were ranked first and second.
Jeong Kwan-Jang selected Park Jeong-woong of Hongik University High School as the first overall pick in the 2024 KBL rookie player draft held at Sono Arena in Goyang on the 15th. Then, Sono nominated Lee Geun-jun of Gyeongbok High School as the second choice, and early applicants from high school students swept the first and second positions.
Park Jeong-woong became the second high school student to be selected first choice in history. Previously, in 2020, Cha Min-seok (Samsung) was selected as the first overall pick ahead of his graduation from Jemulpo High School. Lee Geun-jun is the first high school student to be ranked second. Excluding Cha Min-seok, Han Sang-woong (SK) in 2005, Song Kyo-chang (KCC) in 2015, and Seo Myung-jin (Hyundai Mobis) in 2019 ranked third highest.
Director Kim Sang-sik of Jeong Kwan-jang, who secured the first-choice nomination, called Park Jeong-woong’s name. With the return of Byun Jun-hyung from discharge, the guard lineup including Park Ji-hoon and Choi Seong-won is solid. The swingman resource needed for the team was selected. Park Jeong-woong is the son of former Woori Bank coach Park Seong-bae.
Park Jeong-woong said, “I will work hard and write another high school graduation story.”
As expected, Sono’s second-place pick was Lee Geun-jun. As a tall forward (194.3cm) with a shot that Coach Seung-gi likes, Coach Seung-gi Kim had already predicted the nomination of Geun-jun Lee.
Lee Geun-jun pledged, “I will work hard to become a player that everyone can recognize.”
Afterwards, the naming rights exercise proceeded steadily. In the tryout, big man resources such as Lee Dae-gyun (Dongguk University) and Son Jun (Myongji University) stood out, but DB did not change its selection. The subsequent nomination could have fluctuated depending on DB’s choice of third place, but DB chose Kim Bo-bae (Yonsei University), the tallest (202 cm), as planned.
Korea Gas Corporation nominated mixed-race naturalized athlete Son Jun as fourth choice. Son Jun was born to a Korean mother and British father, and naturalized to participate in the draft. As even Son Jun was nominated, all lottery picks were filled with early picks.
Next, Hyundai Mobis selected Lee Dae-gyun as the 5th choice.
SK exercised the 6th and 7th picks in turn. In addition to the existing 6th pick, two first round rookies were selected with the 7th pick received from sending Lee Kyung-do to LG. Guard Kim Tae-hoon (Korea University) was named as the 6th choice, and guard Lee Min-seo (Yonsei University) was called as the 7th choice.
Samsung selected forward Lim Dong-eon (Chung-Ang University) with the 8th pick. Samsung previously changed DB and draft rankings through the Park Seung-jae trade. KT, which reached the championship game last season, selected guard Cho Hwan-hee (Konkuk University) with the 9th pick, and champion KCC selected forward Cho Hyuk-jae (Sungkyunkwan University) with the 10th pick.
The second round selection was conducted in the reverse order of the first round.
KCC selected another high school student Lee Chan-young (Songdo High School) as the first pick in the second round, KT selected Park Seong-jae (Hanyang University) as the second pick, and DB, which changed the first round rankings with Samsung, selected Baek Seung-hyeop (Dongguk University) as the third pick in the second round. . LG ranked 4th with Choi Hyeong-chan (Yonsei University), Sono, which changed its order through a trade with SK, got 5th ranked, Seo Dong-won (Dankook University), Hyundai Mobis ranked 6th with Park Jun-hyung (Korea University), and Korea Gas Corporation ranked 7th with Kwon Soon-woo (Sangmyung University). The second round also ended with Samsung selecting draft retaken Hwang Young-chan (Kyung Hee University) as the 8th pick, SK selecting Kang Jae-min (Yonsei University) as the 9th pick, and Jeong Kwan-jang picking So Jun-hyuk (Myongji University) as the 10th pick.
From the 3rd round, passes began to appear one after another.
Sono surprisingly selected Jeong Seong-jo (Sungkyunkwan University) as the 2nd pick in the 3rd round. Jeong Seong-jo only experienced elite basketball for about three months while attending Hongdae Middle School. Afterwards, he played an active part in 3-on-3 basketball. Following the nominations of Hyundai Mobis’ Kang Hyun-soo (Chung-Ang University) at the 5th place, SK’s Yang Jun (Korea University) at the 6th place, KT’s Jae-hyun Kim (Korea University) at the 9th place, and KCC’s Hyun-ho Lee (Sungkyunkwan University) at the 10th place, Sono was the only one in the 4th round to be selected by Kim Do-eun (Korea University). The draft ended with the selection of .
As a result, 26 out of 42 applicants succeeded in finding employment.
