He was announced as a retired player at a relatively young age, but he"s not hanging up his boots. Jang Moon-ho (31, 195 cm) has returned to SK after a year in Japan.

The Seoul SK announced the signing of Jang Moon-ho, who was announced as a retired player on Wednesday. The contract is for one year. Jang, who signed with SK after a short break when he returned home last month, has joined the squad and has been training with the team.

The former Konkuk University forward was selected by the Goyang Orion with the first overall pick in the second round of the 2016 rookie draft and joined SK in a trade for Jang Tae-bin just before the start of the 2019-2020 season. He became eligible for free agency after the 2022-2023 season, but was unable to sign with a domestic team and was announced as a retired player, signing with the Kagawa Five Arrows of the B.League B3 (third division) to continue his career.

 

Injuries were one of the reasons why Jang didn"t receive many offers from domestic teams last year. Nagging injuries to his Achilles tendon and back limited him to averaging just 6:47 minutes in eight games in the 2022-2023 season. This led him to Japan, where he averaged 4 points and 2.2 rebounds in 46 games for Kagawa.

As he proved his health, he was inundated with offers at the end of the season. Not only in the B.League, but also in the KBL. In order for a player to return to the KBL after being  totosafeguide.com declared retired, his original team must agree. SK was another team in need of reinforcements. With no obvious reinforcements in the free agency market, SK offered Jang a contract, and his comeback was finalized after a medical test.

 

"I regained my confidence after playing a season in Japan," says Jang. "In the 2022-2023 season, I had a lot of nagging injuries and felt like I was hitting my limits, but I got out of that. I couldn"t sign a contract because of the injury, but after I went to Japan, I got checked again and my body felt better. I was preparing to sign a contract with another team in the B.League, and then SK contacted me. A year ago, I didn"t even think about coming back to the KBL, but it felt good that my family wanted me back," he said.

 

The B3 is a lower league, but the system and level is higher, according to Jang. "(Lee) went to Osaka to watch the game, but the size of the stadium and the number of spectators were different from the B.League. But just because it was the third division, it didn"t mean that the level of play was lower. It was the same with two foreign players and an Asian quarter playing together. The difference was that there were a lot of rookies compared to the first and second leagues. It was different from the lower leagues as we perceive them."

"However, the traveling distance was longer than in Korea. There were times when we traveled six hours by bullet train. We struggled when we weren"t used to playing back-to-back games on the weekends. The language problem was solved in the middle of the season. At the beginning of the season, we spoke in English, but afterward, we studied and communicated in Japanese."

 

The process of announcing his retirement, traveling to Japan, and returning to the KBL is not without precedent, but in the 2024 offseason, Jang and LG reached a new milestone. "I"ve gotten over my anxiety about my injury," said Jang. Now that I"m playing in the KBL again, I"m determined to help the team, show them what I can do, and get good results."