Kim only began focusing on basketball in high school, relatively late compared to many of his KBL peers.

[2] Kim played college basketball at Chung-Ang University and drew comparisons to Seo Jang-hoon for his height.

[3] During the 2000 National Basketball Festival tournament, he ranked first in rebounds and points scored and named the MVP.

[4] His stellar performances in other Korea University Basketball Federation tournaments earned him a call-up to the national team.

[5][1] Kim had one of the best rookie recording averages with 17.04 points, 8.72 rebounds, 2.24 assists, and 2.07 blocks in the season.

Kim averaged 18.85 points, 8.85 rebounds, and 2.43 shoot-blocks and won the Most Valuable Player of the league in the 2003–2004 season.

Kim won the KBL Most Valuable Player Award for the second time and led the league in blocks that season.

It marked a rare instance in domestic basketball of a player being teammates with both a father-son duo for the same professional team.