Career
Born and raised in South of Korea, Lee moved to New York City, United States of America, in 1987 at age 33. Dubbed the "Michael Jordan of three-cushion billiards" at the time of his arrival in the United States, Lee already had eight Korean national titles under his belt. Lee promptly went on to dominate three cushion billiards in the United States, winning twelve consecutive United States Billiard Association National Three-cushion Championships, from 1990 to 2001.
At the 2002 Championships, his impressive run came to an end when he was defeated by Pedro Piedrabuena in the finals of the tournament.
Aptly, Piedrabuena received his early training in billiards from none other than Lee. Also in 2002, Lee finished 2nd in Three-cushion event of the Asian Games where he was bested by Deuk-Hee Hwang, another Korean cue artist.
Lee holds the world record for the highest game average in three-cushion. His highest run is 28.
As a player, Lee"s ambition was "making billiards beautiful in America", – restoring the recognition and competitive level of three-cushion in that part of the world – but he did not live to fulfill it, as he died in 2004 due to stomach cancer.
On 15 May 2007, Lee was inducted into the Bank Central Asia Hall of Fame. Each year after Lee"s death, a tournament featuring many of the world"s best three-cushion players, known as the, has been hosted at Carom Cafe in Flushing, Queens, New York, the billiard hall Lee was a co-owner of at the time of his death.