It is not easy for a man and a woman to become lifelong friends. Of course, male friends (boyfriends) and female friends (female friends) did exist. Ask them and they’ll tell you that friendships that go beyond same-sex friends will last forever.
Even so, is it because of the long-standing teaching of ‘male and female seven years old together’? Still, men are comfortable dealing with men, and women are used to being with each other. The sentiment that it is difficult for men and women to be friends is still dominant.
Wouldn’t it be more difficult if you met through work? Is it common for men and women who have been in a superior relationship in the same company to work together for nearly 20 years and continue to produce business results? Even couples who fell in love and got married are divided in many ways through divorce. For ‘business couples’ who spend more time together than family, mutual consideration is absolutely essential for a comfortable relationship like a family.
Woori Bank’s women’s professional basketball coach Sang-Woo Lee (52) and Joo-Won Jeon (51) are in a relationship that goes beyond the expression of ‘the best of business couples’ and can be described as ‘absolutely unlucky’. They met for the first time in 2005 as a coach and player (playing coach) at Shinhan Bank, and in 2012, they united again as a coach and coach at Woori Bank and have been together for 18 years. There is no precedent in the domestic sports world.
When the two of them got together, the hallway came together. Midas’ ‘Two Hands’. When coach Wi severely drove the players to the edge of a cliff, the former coach held hands and read the history of women’s basketball from the cliff. At Shinhan Bank, we have enjoyed the joy of winning 7 championships (including 5 consecutive losses) since 2005, and at Woori Bank, as a manager and coach, we saved a team that was on the verge of dying in the first season and won a surprise championship, winning 7 championships (including 6 consecutive losses). ) was placed on
● ‘Jeon Joo-won stepped down as coach’ who recommended ‘Coach Seong-Woo Wi’“’Coach Wi Seong-wu’ I recommended.”
Director Wi and former coach, who recently met at Woori Bank’s gym in Jangwi-dong, Seoul, recalled the memory of their first meeting.
The former coach, who was a legendary guard for the Korean women’s national basketball team, stopped active activities due to pregnancy while playing Shinhan Bank in 2004, and became a coach after giving birth to her daughter (Jeong Soo-bin) the following year, but returned as a player because she could not forget the court. As the former coach returned to her active career, Wie took over the coaching position that had become vacant.
Coach Wi was at the crossroads of retirement from Hyundai Mobis, a professional basketball player. While receiving a two-year contract offer from another club, coach Wi visited the Shinhan Bank practice field at the call of then Shinhan Bank manager Lee Young-joo. After her retirement, she began her leadership career as a coach at Shinhan Bank.
– Did the former coach open up a second life for coach Wie? “(bowing 90 degrees to the former coach
) Thank you!”
That was their first conversation. Coach Jeon gave a positive expression to the manager and secretary general at the time. He remembers him as ‘sincere Sungwoo Wi’, so he said he would be good as a coach. It seems that the former coach’s ‘pick’, which was the team’s mental support, had a great influence. Just as the former coach waved his hand and said, “I was one of many votes,” Wie jumped in again.
“It’s an honor to have you choose someone like me.”
● ‘Jeon Joo-won’ recognized ‘pickled radish’Director Wi describes himself as ‘pickled radish’. It’s because his personality is ‘simple-ignorant-knowledge X’ . However, since she coached a women’s basketball team she was unfamiliar with, she said her style stands out even more. The former coach, who is a year younger, said that Wie’s tough temperament was well managed so that it could only be used to increase the players’ tension and concentration during training rather than usual.
Thanks to this, coach Wi said that he was able to lay the foundation for his own coaching style, which brought players down to the bottom with strong charisma and rigorous training, then raised up to 120% of the player’s performance and poured it into his court.
“I started at Shinhan Bank and watched the players practice, but I couldn’t tell whether they were exercising or warming up. I couldn’t tell if I was using 100% of my strength or just 50%. I can’t ask the coach one by one, and the former coach was good at organizing things. The former coach was a big star, so it was difficult to approach him, but he treated me politely. I gave a lot of feedback about the players’ styles and tendencies on their own.” (Sungwoo Wi) “
After watching the first training session, he asked me if running was right for me, and he said, ‘I’m just working hard. You’ll do that after watching the male players’. Haha.” (Jeon Joo-won)
It is not that the former coach accepted Wie’s tough style, which pressured the opponent like a poisonous species as a leech-headed defender even during his active career, from the beginning.
– It’s a relief if we don’t fight, but I can’t believe it. There were no problems at all, right?
“Coach Wi came as a coach, and during the game I was so annoyed that I couldn’t play, but he pointed out something really bad. I got a fever and said, ‘Ah! Got it. really!’ I got hit with this. (Lee Young-joo) I got caught by the coach, but if the two were going to fight, both of them told me to leave the team, so from now on we never bumped into each other. Haha.” (Jeon Joo-won)
● Wi Seong-wu, who pointed out the one and only thing to basketball genius Jeon Joo-wonCoach Jeon is an all-time star of women’s basketball who is compared to ‘Basketball President’ Heo Jae. She only gives birth in women’s professional basketball and she played eight more seasons. In all of Korean professional sports, the permanent absence is the only star among stars that has as many as two stars. No leader has ever shot a laser at a former coach like this.
“There was no coach who pointed out basketball to me. The director is the only ‘person who said something to me’. But thank you. Because he thought he was losing his mind while playing the game. I thought it would be nice if someone would scold me when I couldn’t play. I think I was able to play as an active player without losing my nerves until I was 40 because of the coach’s blow at that time.
” same. After firing at the former coach, I was able to push the same way to big stars like Jeong Seon-min (currently the women’s basketball team coach),” she laughed. Coach Wi said, “I acted with the idea that I have a role as a coach and that players have work to do as players. The former coach was able to talk badly to the company, but they understood it well,” he said.
Coach Wi said that he was also grateful for the fact that the former coach acted as a bridge between the coach and the players and gave the players a logical understanding of the manager’s tendencies.
Coach Jeon saw Wi’s 180-degree difference on and off the court and knew his true feelings. Director Wi is code for Heo-Heo-Sil as long as he gets off the court. He is a man who will buy you ice cream unconditionally if you run into him in the neighborhood. Even if the words are rough on the court, there is no end to it. During the operation time, he directs the operation without obstruction, but usually the words are twisted. They laugh out loud even when the speaker makes a joke without thinking about it.
“We always express ‘He is coming’ at the basketball court or at practice, but it’s very common in everyday life. Take care of your players too familyly and meticulously. He is surprisingly not difficult. If I had a three-dimensional personality rather than a simple one, I don’t know if I would have stayed with you until now.” (Jeon Joo-won)
“If I do that outside the basketball court, the players will think of me as a psychopath. I wanted to become a difficult person, but I couldn’t.” (Sungwoo Wi)
● ‘Western shower’ that made me take the test for the first timeThe relationship between coach Wi and the former coach almost ended once in the middle. Director Wi, who built a solid career at Shinhan Bank, received a manager offer from Woori Bank in 2012. Woori Bank, which was the last regular player, took Wi as the right person to transplant Shinhan Bank’s championship DNA . Coach Wi accepted the first coaching job in his life and had to face his former coach, who retired in 2011 and became a Shinhan Bank coach, as an enemy.
Director Wie didn’t worry.
“I proposed to my coach’s groom first. I want my coach to be the coach of Woori Bank. Woori Bank was a team that had to train rigorously at the time, and I wanted to be a good buffer between the coach and the players.”
From the point of view of the former coach, it is not necessary to accept the proposal of coach Wie. But this time, when a new inner motivation was needed, director Wie made a ‘call’ at an amazing timing.
“When I was at Shinhan Bank, I had the feeling that I was always receiving the full honor of franchise stars. But he felt like taking the test for the first time after receiving the director’s suggestion. I, who had only succeeded in one team, felt like I would fail in any position if I moved to another team and didn’t do well. That’s why I decided to take on the first challenge.”
-After moving to Woori Bank, you must have become one with the newly reset goal.
“When I think about it now, I was very brave. How do you bring a former coach to a team that used to win 5-10 in 40 games?… Because it was. For 3 years, I barely survived after dying from stress.” (Wi Seong-wu)
“How can the players do well for 3-4 years? I don’t think I thought anything more or less than that. At the time, I didn’t even talk to the players. There was no blood or tears. If we showed laxity, we feared that the players would be swept away by the atmosphere, so we made it more vicious.” (Jeon Joo-won)
– There must have been two mothers-in-law.
“The players would have recognized the manager and the coach as the same person. When I came to this team, there was no ace. At the match point, the players postpone the solution to each other and spin the ball. I decided that I should endure more stress on my own when I judged that ‘nothing was set and my confidence was missing’.” (Wi Seong-wu)
Manager Wi and former coaches called themselves ‘villains’, and with 100% breathing, they won the regular league and championship match in the 2012-2013 season, the first year of their appointment, and opened the start of the Woori Bank dynasty in a splendid way.
● That’s why ‘Jeon Joo-won’, blood type A who fits everything“My coach is someone who can hit anyone.”
‘Couples’, who have been in their 19th year, are now pretending. The former coach, whose blood type is A, carefully considers coach Wi’s mood and habits. Coach Wi, who is brother O, is scheming on the court, but aims for frightening disorder off the court. Still, he respects and accepts the former coach’s opinion. He is stubborn, but when a former coach presents an opinion that his judgment seems to be wrong in player management or communication, he corrects it immediately.
– If you were a lover, would director Wie have a tired style?
“Let’s say he decides to eat jajangmyeon for lunch. The director is the type to change it right away when he suddenly finds another menu item. I find out in advance where there are delicious jajangmyeon restaurants. Of course, I have to match the director’s taste, but I asked once. When I asked, ‘Can’t you just eat jajangmyeon?’, he said, ‘You’ll be the director later’. Haha.” (Jeon Joo-won)
“It’s comfortable because everything is set. There are times when I feel sorry, but I have become shameless.” (Wi Seong-wu)
– Does being shameless mean that you feel very comfortable with the former coach?
“If the coach is looking at me, it means that I am not doing well as a coach. I am doing well when the coach is comfortable.” (Jeon Joo-won)
– My former coach is type A.
“I also listen without saying anything when my former coach makes a serious suggestion. For example, when a problem arises between me and a player, the former coach says, ‘Coach. In this part, the director is a bit excessive,’ he says. Then I apologize to the player.
It’s not easy for a coach to say ‘I’m sorry’ to a player, but the former coach reminded me . “
“If it seems so, I will look into it. As I pointed out something, the moment I thought, ‘Did I do something wrong?’ I am definitely right, but there are times
when I conclude that I was wrong. ” It is said that a woman speaks 20,000 words in her life and a man writes about 5,000 words. But when the man runs out of words, he says he has nothing to say and leaves the house. Men are wiser not to talk. Haha.” (Jeon Joo-won)
After spending 18 years together, the intersection between the two naturally widened. “I know the coach 100%. In response to coach Wie’s comment, “I’ve become more feminine after being in the women’s team for a long time,” coach Jeon said, “It would have been difficult for me to adapt if the coach had a lot of drinking appointments.”
It’s awkward for the two to be apart for so long. At the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, former coach took over as head coach of the women’s basketball team and left the team for a while. Ahead of the new season, coach Wi had to take care of all the team’s household chores.
“It was hard to spend the summer alone. I thought I was dying of boredom. I regretted it. Why did you send it to the national team? haha.”
The former coach also felt strange because Coach Wi was not by his side.
“I always helped the director, but it was strange to be the first decision maker. I was always worried that something might go wrong because I was clumsy.”
● ‘Wiseongwoo’ protects ‘Mom Sikhye’… ‘We’ without a decision to partThere were countless happy and rewarding things to do, but it is also very meaningful to the two of them to deeply share the unexpected grievances and painful memories that occurred in the middle.
In 2017, coach Wie felt skeptical about basketball for the first time after seeing his wife who was ill and had surgery. The thought of “Why am I doing this?” made me feel futile.
“It’s boredom. I think I got tired of running without looking around and only looking ahead. But I was confused because I didn’t know how to rest. I knew then. It’s no use trying hard.”
-Did the director feel that such a moment would come?
“I didn’t think you would give up everything because you’re sincere. Like ‘I’ll only throw away three or four out of 10’? Then, when Danbi Kim transferred last season, he ‘woke up’ again . ” (Jeon Joo-won)
The former coach said he didn’t help the coach much and was comfortable with basketball. But he would be lying if he said he didn’t have hard work. On March 18, 2013스포츠토토, ahead of Game 3 of the women’s professional basketball championship game, the former coach’s mother passed away suddenly. Her mother, who watched the second match the day before, passed away from a sudden heart attack early the next morning. Her mother handed her homemade sikhye in her red barrel after her second game, and that was her last encounter with her daughter.
-How did you make Sikhye?
“I still have it. A nice freezer in my room… . I can not eat. I can’t eat… .”
He smiles on the outside, but the former coach has tears in his eyes.
“Let’s throw it away when we move.”
Woori Bank’s Jangwi-dong accommodation and training ground and surroundings will be redeveloped in 2026. have to move Director Wi said bluntly to throw away Sikhye, but he was not fooling himself. Every time the former coach sees Sikhye, he has always been worried about ‘how hard he managed to deal with his upset heart’. Coach Jeon has Sikhye, so I think good things will continue to come to Coach Wi and himself.
“I think I will have it until I quit this job.”
How long will they be on the same team?
Coach Wi said that one day the former coach would become the coach, and the former coach said it was important to spend each day well. However, the attitude of the two toward the future is exquisitely the same.
“Now that I’m older, I think I live with the understanding that anything can happen.” (Jeon Joo-won)
“That’s right. By the way, I heard that the former coach knew that he was only directing this interview today? hmm. It could be.” (Wi Seong-wu)