Ahead of the Korea-Japan match in July, national team coach Ahn Jun-ho says, “Basketball is unreasonably fast.”
Ahead of the Korea-Japan match in July, national team coach Ahn Jun-ho says, “Basketball is unreasonably fast.”
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Ahead of the match against Japan in July, Ahn Jun-ho, the head coach of the national men's basketball team, expressed
his determination, saying, "We will compete with unreasonably fast basketball."
The Korean men's basketball team, led by coach Ahn Jun-ho, will play two away games in Japan on July 5th and 7th.
Last July, ahead of the Hangzhou Asian Games, the Japanese national team visited Korea and played two matches, and
this year, Korea will visit Japan.
Although there are disadvantages to playing away games, Japan is expected to have an even more difficult game as it is
highly likely that they will gather top players ahead of the Paris Olympics in July.
It is true that Japan is improving its sense of real-life competition in preparation for the Olympic finals by holding two
evaluation matches with Australia in June, while it is not easy for Korea, which failed to participate in the Olympics, to
motivate its athletes.
There are only four days of training before the competition.
Due to the break period after the end of the KBL season, it was impossible to secure sufficient training period, and
participation in the Jones Cup in Taiwan, which was scheduled to follow the trip to Japan, also became difficult.
Coach Ahn Jun-ho said in an interview on the 5th, "This national team is composed mainly of young players, and these
players are valuable assets for the future of Korean men's basketball." “I hope this will serve as an opportunity to become
more mentally and physically mature,” he said.
In addition, "this Korea-Japan match is not a goal in itself, but rather an opportunity for the players to have a stronger
sense of goal in raising their level to the next level from a long-term perspective leading to the 2025 Asia Cup, 2026 Asian
Games, 2027 World Cup, and 2028 Olympics." did.
Regarding Lee Hyun-joong and Yeo Jun-seok, who play overseas, he explained the reason for not being selected for the
national team, saying, "Lee Hyun-joong has a schedule to play in the NBA Summer League, and Yeo Jun-seok has
expressed his intention to focus on preparing for next season 스포츠토토존 ahead of entering his third year." did.
Regarding the naturalized player whose contract with Laguna (former KCC) has ended, he said, "The naturalization
process is difficult, but it takes at least 6 months at the earliest." He added, "For coordination of the national team
schedule, a player who plays in the KBL league is good, but Didrick Lawson (Didrick Lawson) He explained, “The former
DB did not renew his contract, and Jamil Warney (SK) has experience playing for foreign age-group national teams, so it
shouldn’t be done.”
In reality, extending Laguna's contract is a way to minimize the gap between naturalized players, but even if that happens,
follow-up measures must be prepared quickly as Laguna is older as he was born in 1989.
Regarding this trip to Japan, Coach Ahn said, "Since there are no naturalized players, we are expected to be inferior in
height, so we have to play fast basketball so that people think, 'This is too much, this is too much.'" He added, "Of course,
defense is important, but the training period is short, so we need to play a variety of defenses." “It is not easy to prepare,
and I will stick to the basics such as rebounding and boxing out,” he emphasized.
Recently, when coach Jeon Chang-jin (61), Busan KCC coach Jeon Chang-jin (61) set a record for winning as the oldest
coach in professional basketball history, and in professional baseball, coach Kim Kyung-moon (65) returned, the
performance of veteran coaches was notable, and it was said that he was 'two years older than coach Kim Kyung-moon'.
Coach Ahn said bluntly, “Does the coach talk about results or age?”
Following this trip to Japan, the men's basketball team led by Coach Ahn will prepare for the Asia Cup preliminary game
in November.