Sea Games gold medalist
Olympic veteran on Vietnam Seaba team
by
rick olivares
The Vietnamese national
team flew into Manila for the Seaba championships minus three players who
weren’t given clearance by the Vietnamese military for the matches.
That leaves head coach
Donte Hill with nine able bodies to compete in this biannual basketball
tourney. He’ll have one tough guy though in tow – center Nguyen Van Hung.
In many ways, Van Hung is
a national hero in his country – he is a five-time Southeast Asian gold
medalist in taekwondo (heavyweight division). He’s also copped gold and silver
in the Asian Games and has represented his country twice in the Olympics. For
his efforts, the Vietnamese government conferred upon him the Honourable First
Class Labour Order in January 2006, a top award given to civilians.
According to Vietnam team
official Nguyen Ngoc Huyen Trang, Van Hung is a practicing taekwondo coach.
“And when he isn’t teaching taekwondo, he plays center for the Saigon Heat in
the Asean Basketball League.”
Said Hill of his player,
Va Hung is a terrific and fearless defensive player. One who is used to playing
against imports.
The 36-year old Van Hung
is in the twilight of his cage career. According to Ngoc Huyen Trang, the
Vietnam squad seeing action in the Seaba tourney is a mixture of veteran talent
with newcomers. “Basketball is only new to our country,” said Ngoc Huyen Trang.
“With Van Hung on the team, we hope he will inspire young Vietnamese to also
play basketball.”
In
this country of over 92 million, football is king. Basketball though is
growing. And how this team performs in Seaba and the August Sea Games in Kuala
Lumpur will have an effect on how their countrymen view the game. And Nguyen
Van Hung will play a large part in it.
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