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Kiana Smith, a WNBA-born Korean player, is ahead of the first pick in the domestic women's professional basketball rookie draft.
Her smith is dreaming of her Taegeuk mark in her mother's country.
Correspondent Lee Jeong-chan.
Born
to her Korean mother and American father, Kiana Smith was noted as her American basketball prospect, having inherited the blood of her grandfather, who was an NBA player, and her father, a college basketball coach.
While she was in college, she led the University of Louisville to the quarterfinals in March's Rampage, and last summer she was drafted by the Los Angeles team in the WNBA draft.
Seeing potential with her 2.6 points average in her 11 games in her debut season, Smith turned to her South Korea.
[Kiana Smith/LA Sparks Guard: I really wanted to come to Korea.
I want to learn more about my culture, and playing in my mother's country means a lot to my family.]
The American Basketball Association suggested a 3 to 3 national team to catch the 23-year-old, 183 cm tall guard Smith, but Smith was a 'Taegeuk mark' declined for
[Kiana Smith/LA Sparks Guard: When the moment of choice came, she leaned more towards her mother's country.
The Olympics was my dream, and if I go to the Olympics as a representative of Korea, it is truly a dream come true.] While
the whole family, including my parents and maternal grandmother, were visiting Korea,
[Choi Chung-ja/Grandma Choi: I came to Korea for the first time in 15 years.
I'm proud of you.]
Smith quickly adapts to Korean culture and is ahead of the first pick in the domestic rookie draft.
[John Smith/Father: Basketball should be universal.
That language connected you and Korea, and I am very happy.
Concentrate]
[Choi Won-sun/Mother: Good job.
You should do well.]
[Kiana Smith/LA Sparks Guard: Yes]
Smith vowed to wear the Taegeuk mark by going through the naturalization process in the WNBA in the summer and the domestic league in the winter.
(Video coverage: Gong Jin-goo, video editing: So Ji-hye, CG: Kim Hong-sik)