Busan Magic Wings: The Next NBA Champions

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Hahaha. Right.

Yes, Korea has basketball, but no, they are not so good. I attended my first Busan KTF Magic Wings game, and it was a hoot. The stadium was barely half full, but people were pretty excited. The entrance of 25 foreigners was caused a bit of a ruckus, especially since we entered right in front of an entire brigade of some sort of military branch who were clearly on leave for the afternoon. Those guys were great - they were very responsive to our attempts to get "the wave" goin, but it petered out after going around almost 1/3 of the stadium. What a shame. They were also in love with Erin, my blond friend leading the wave. They cheered her on more than the game, and gave her some free pizza. She was a champ and even let me have a bite, cuz she's just that kind of girl. :-D

The half time show consisted of a Tae Kwon Do performance that was awesome. I think all of the kids involved were black belts! Certainly gave me inspiration to practice my hapkido. The cheerleaders were amusing. Their dances reminded me of high school, and they constantly had to wave about advertising signs. I wonder how competitive a cheerleading role for the Wild Wings really is...

The team played well, but ultimately lost 61-60. It was very intense in those last few moments! We had a good time, and only partly because we were allowed to bring in alcohol and food. Yes, we were the foreigners with empty soju bottles littered around us at the end of the game. Ha. So different than Braves games back home.

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