"165cm" Heo Ye-eun (25, KB Stars) was named the top player in professional basketball.
KB Stars defeated Yongin Samsung Life Insurance 80-65 in Game 3 of the BNK Financial 2025-26 Women's Professional Basketball Championship at Yongin Gymnasium on the 26th, sweeping to three straight wins. Regular-season champion KB Stars completed the integrated championship with a playoff PerfecT six-game winning streak. KB Stars achieved the club's third integrated championship.
Guard Heo Ye-eun, who impressed throughout the series, received 47 of the 72 votes from the press corps and was selected as the championship series MVP.
After the victory ceremony, Heo Ye-eun said, "I wanted to get to this place while playing the season. I wanted to enjoy this moment. I'm grateful that the season ending is a victory. I feel so stunned and good right now. I didn't want to think about MVP at all."
Heo Ye-eun experienced an integrated championship four years ago as well, but this time it is different because she played as the ace. Heo Ye-eun explained, "At that time my play was immature and young. Now four years have passed and my role on the team has changed. I have younger teammates now, so I feel more responsibility."
It is even more meaningful that the victory came without Park Ji-soo. She said, "The label of (Park) Ji-soo unnie followed me around. I strongly wanted to break free from it. This season I wanted the victory more desperately. I would have liked to do it with unnie, but the fact that the other players did it makes this victory meaningful."
Even immediately after receiving the MVP, she was not satisfied. Heo Ye-eun expressed her ambitions, saying, "I want to become a more complete player. I want to be a stronger team. I want to be a team that always challenges for championships. Off the court, I still show emotions when things on the court don't go well, so I'm still inexperienced. I want to become a mature player."
[OSEN]