Local Basketball: Grow Your Dreams & Skills

[체육 생태계 바꾸는 디비전 리그] 〈Award〉 Club basketball integrated ‘K-Division’
Divide matches into D3~D5 leagues by level
Systematically manage individual and team records… Elected and non-elected, run and sweat together
D3, the top club for amateurs, moves to full league next year
The first test bed for the possibility of an integrated lift and lowering system… A chance for players who lost their chance as a professional

“No matter how big the difference in scores is, there is never any slacking here.”

Lee Yong-jin, senior vice president of the Seoul Basketball Association, said this while watching the 2025 D3 Seoul Championship Basketball Division League final match between Uptempo and Owls at the University of Seoul gymnasium in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul last month. The game on this day had an up-tempo, one-sided advantage from the start. Uptempo ended the first half with a 48-11 lead, and expanded the lead to 76-24 at the end of the third quarter. Uptempo won 97-41 and won the championship title.

However, the Owls players did their best until the end. Regardless of the passion for basketball, the division system also systematically organizes each player’s personal records. There are quite a few games where videos remain. There are conditions that require you to do your best until the end.

● Integrated management with K-division system

Starting this year, the Korea Basketball Association began integrated management of club basketball competitions scattered across the country under the name of the ‘K-Division System’. The K-Division divides professional leagues into D1, professional second-tier leagues into D2, and hobbyist basketball into D3 to D5 and independent leagues. In short, the D3 league is the highest level that those who enjoy basketball as a hobby can experience. During D3 league games, up to two former elite players (selected players) can take the court at a time.

Uptempo’s Bang Deok-won (37) and Kim Hyun-jun (22) are ‘selected’. Center Bang Deok-won, who is 207cm tall, was selected by KT as the 14th overall pick in the 2011-2012 professional basketball (KBL) rookie draft. Guard Kim Hyun-jun, who was selected as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) on this day with 16 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 interceptions each, also took the ‘elite course’ by going through Samseon Elementary School, Samseon Middle School, and Gyeongbok High School in Seoul.

Non-elected club members must first go through the player registration process to participate in the division league. Kim Soo-bin, vice president of the Seoul Basketball Association, who helped lay the foundation for the division system, said, “The starting point was to register and manage all neighborhood basketball players as players.” He added, “This year’s D3 Seoul Basketball Division League and Seoul Mayor’s Cup was held at the Jamsil Student Gymnasium, the home of SK professional basketball, from the round of 16. It must have been meaningful for the participating players to get the experience of playing in a professional stadium.” Individual and team records are also systematically managed. Up-tempo playing coach Jeong Jun-ho (43) said with a smile, “I’m really jealous of the players these days. When we were at the peak of our game, we didn’t manage our records properly, but under the division system, the association even posts detailed records of each game on the website. Most games have videos on YouTube.”

● Establishment of promotion and relegation system through division league

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism introduced the division league in 2017 with the goal of ‘expanding the base of daily sports.’ In tournament-style competitions, teams with non-elite players will inevitably have fewer opportunities to gain experience. The division league is a system created to instill a sense of goal of ‘wanting to advance to a higher league’ while holding competitions in a league format.

The basketball division league is just in its infancy. Divisional leagues began this year along with volleyball, hockey, and handball. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism invested approximately 24.5 billion won in the budget for establishing and operating the division league this year.

First of all, this year, the basketball season was held under the name D3 League, with 7 tournaments that went through the group stage. Starting next year, the D3 League will be operated directly by the Korea Basketball Association as a full league with 12 teams participating. The association plans to test the possibility of a promotion and relegation system in the future by holding D3 as a full league.

Senior Vice Chairman Lee said, “If the D3 League is systematically operated and established, it will be able to function as a place where players who lost their chance in the pros can try again.” The existence of Jeong Seong-jo (25, Samsung), who participated in last season’s KBL rookie draft as a club member and became the first ‘non-selected’ nominee in professional basketball history, shows that establishing a promotion system, including the professional level, is not an impossible dream in the future. Jeong Seong-jo is from the Owls, who lost that day.

Joint planning: Dong-A Ilbo and Korea Institute of Sports Science