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| The Korean Basketball League has moved to level the playing field regardless of nationality. |
By Park Si-soo
The Korean Basketball League (KBL) has scrapped discriminative rules against foreign players in a bid to level the playing field regardless of nationality.
The KBL endorsed the revision at its board of directors meeting on Tuesday. The new rules will go into effect from next year as the 2018-19 season is coming to a close.
Notable changes include the elimination of a height limit. Currently, KBL teams can have up to two foreign players on their rosters on condition one is not taller than 200 centimeters and the other does not exceed 186 centimeters. This restriction has drawn international mockery.
But the league will keep the two-foreign-players-a-team rule.
The KBL has also scrapped the "career limit" that stops foreign athletes who have played more than 10 games in three NBA seasons from joining the KBL.
In the revised salary cap on foreign players, a team with two can spend up to $700,000 a year on them. Teams with one foreign player can spend up to $500,000. When renewing contracts, players can claim up to a 10 percent salary increase a year.
