Adrian's father was in the U.S. military and met his Korean wife-to-be, who was working at a U.S. Army base, after being transferred to Korea 20 years ago. The family now lives together on a U.S. base in Osan, Gyeonggi province.

Adrian, now 190 centimeters tall, started playing basketball from an early age. As he got more serious about it, he befriended people who were equally serious about basketball as he was.

Adrian said that as a kid people called him "AJ," short for "Adrian Jordan," because his friends in fifth grade thought he played like the NBA star Michael Jordan. Adrian is especially good at dribbling and dunking. Every time he throws down a dunk, his friends cheer out loud.

"I don't know if I want to become a basketball player or a soldier like my dad," Adrian said. "But as for now, I am inclined toward basketball."

Adrian, who loves Korean food and prefers living in Korea over the United States, wants to play on the Korean courts. "As a child, I learned Korean from my grandmother and hoped I could live here forever," he explained. "I will try hard to become a KBL player in a few years." (Choi Bo-yoon, spica@chosun.com )