“I prayed to be drafted by KB as the No. 1 pick. I think I can be competitive in the professional stage if I have power locally.”When her daughter Ko Hyun-ji (18-182.2 cm) was selected to wear the jersey of Cheongju KB as the No. 1 overall pick in the Korean Women’s Basketball League (WKBL) draft, her mother, former national women’s basketball player Cho Moon-ju (59), was overwhelmed but worried about the tough survival competition in the professional stage.Ko was drafted by KB as the No. 1 overall pick in the Korean Women’s Basketball League’s (WKBL) rookie draft for the 2023-2024 season at the Cheongju Gymnasium in Chungcheongbuk-do on Thursday.Cho Moon-ju is a “basketball senior” who joined the then-unemployed Kookmin Bank in 1984 and served as the national team’s starting center at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and 1990 Beijing Asian Games.With Ko Hyun-ji joining KB today, it’s the second time a mother and daughter have played for the organization.”I stayed up all night because I couldn’t sleep,” Cho said in an interview after the draft. “When I heard that KB won the No. 1 pick in the morning’s ranking lottery, I fervently prayed that Jeon would be selected by KB as the No. 1 pick.”When Ko Hyun-ji didn’t perform as well as usual at the tryouts leading up to the draft, Cho said, “I don’t think he’ll make it to the pros. I was so nervous that my heart was pounding in my ears, so I couldn’t perform properly,” Cho said.However, Cho had no doubts about Ko’s No. 1 ranking.”He’s 182 cm tall, but he can play all positions, including guard and forward, and last year he played center,” Cho said.”Right now, he is too skinny (59 kilograms) and lacks both strength and fat, so his power is weak, but I think he can be competitive as a guard and forward if he gets stronger with systematic training in the pros for the next two to three years,” he analyzed.”I expect him to be a much better player than when I played professionally at Kookmin Bank,” he said.As a mom of a Kookmin alum, she also coached Ko Hyun-ji directly.What she especially valued was his ability to break through one-on-one.”In the team, the coaches focus on team training,” she says. “If you have your own individual skills, it’s the icing on the cake in terms of being able to break through the opponent in a one-on-one situation,” says Cho. “I would watch the defense and let Hyun-ji attack, and I would help her with the finesse and technical aspects.He also made sure to work on his shot.”Basketball is all about the shot,” he said, “and the basics are the most important. “You have to shoot from overhead, and when he was shooting jump shots, he was shooting from right in front of you,” Cho said. “Even before the draft, I took him to the gym and kept him practicing his basic shooting form.Getting drafted is hard enough, but Cho knows it’s even harder to survive and thrive in the pros.”I’m more worried from now on,” Cho said, “I have to listen to my manager and coach at 토토사이트 KB and watch my seniors play basketball to survive.”