‘Basketball player’ Ahn Jun-ho has a deep connection with the professional basketball team Seoul Samsung.
The first corporate team he joined in 1979 after graduating from Kyung Hee University was Samsung Electronics, and he spent eight years as a player there.
He returned to Samsung as a coach in 2000 and finally became the head coach of his former team four years later. At that time he was 48 years old.
Samsung, under former coach Ahn, was truly a leading professional basketball company. Former coach Ahn was at the helm for 7 seasons from 2010 to 2011, and Samsung advanced to the playoffs (PO) every season. 토토사이트
They successfully advanced to the championship game three times. They won the championship trophy in the 2005-2006 season and finished second in the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons.
At Samsung, former coach Ahn won 203 regular league games and lost 175 games. The winning rate is 53.7%.
The leader who had many ups and downs with former coach Ahn during this period is former coach Seo Dong-cheol, who led Suwon KT until last season.
Former coach Seo, who assisted Coach Ahn as the head coach, left the team together in 2011 when Coach Ahn's contract with Samsung failed to be renewed.
The leadership duo who made Samsung a basketball powerhouse in the 2000s are expected to reunite for the first time in 12 years on the men's basketball team.
The Korea Basketball Association's Performance Improvement Committee conducted interviews for national team manager-coach candidates on the 19th.
Among the three teams nominated, the team of Coach Ahn and Coach Seo received the highest scores and will be reviewed by the association's board of directors on January 23 next year.
Unless a special reason for disqualification is found, Coach Ahn will take command of the national team. If this happens, former coach Ahn will return to the basketball scene after 12 years.
After the interview, former coach Ahn told Yonhap News, "Men's basketball has been sluggish since the 2014 Asian Games, in which we won a gold medal.
I applied to help men's basketball take a leap forward again," emphasizing his commitment to the cause of Korean basketball.
He continued, "There are two axes in Korean basketball. One of them, the quality of professional basketball, must be improved, but the other axle, the national team, must also perform well in international competitions.
He added, "The two axes must run well like a wheel to expand the base of basketball." said.
Former coach Ahn is said to have devoted himself to studying basketball during his absence from the field.
He said that he went to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for training and also participated in a camp held in the United States to learn advanced basketball.
In addition, during the past five seasons that former coach Seo led KT, he emphasized that he tried not to lose his 'feel' for basketball, such as discussing the team's overall strategy and tactics with him.
In fact, thanks to the achievements he achieved during his time at Samsung, former coach Ahn was evaluated as a leader who was good at planning the overall plan, including player composition and major tactics.
However, the face of basketball has completely changed between when he was active as a coach and now. The center of basketball has suddenly moved from under the goal to the outskirts.
In former coach Ahn's last season of professional basketball, the team that threw the most 3-pointers was SK (20.5) in the 2010-2011 season.
The team that throws the fewest 3-pointers this season, 12 years later, is Ulsan Hyundai Mobis, shooting 20.7 per game.
Samsung under former coach Ahn did not enjoy outside defense. He shot an average of 18.7 3-pointers per game over 7 seasons, which was in the bottom tier even at the time.
Concerns about being left out in the development process of modern basketball are further amplified by the age of former coach Ahn. Former coach Ahn, born in 1956, is in his late 60s, and his students are now taking over as head coaches of each team.
Busan KCC coach Lee Sang-min has served as Samsung coach for eight seasons, and acting coach Kang Hyeok is also leading Daegu Korea Gas Corporation this season.
In fact, during the performance improvement committee scoring and meeting after the interview
it is said that a strong opinion was raised that young basketball players should be given opportunities rather than 'senior coaches', including coach Ahn.
After hearing these concerns, former coach Ahn announced that he would now play suburban basketball in line with the 'trend'.
He said, "I want to embody the trend of basketball these days. I want to play basketball that focuses on fast breaks and quick attacks and continues to create scoring opportunities through attacks on the outside.
Of course, we have to aim for the bottom of the goal, but we are inferior in height on the international stage. “It is a fait accompli,” he said.
It is the responsibility of former coach Seo, who was in the professional basketball field until the 2022-2023 season, to resolve concerns surrounding former coach Ahn.
Former coach Seo said, "The right person for the position of national team coach is coach Ahn Jun-ho. I think we need someone who can make the national team strong again." He added,
The chemistry between the coach and coach is important everywhere. I speak directly to the coach about tactics, strategies, training, etc. “I do it a lot,” he said.
In particular, former coach Seo believed that strengthening the defensive organization of our national team, which ranked 7th, its lowest ever score at the Hangzhou Asian Games, was a priority.
He said, "The reason the national team's performance is not good these days is because the defense has become weak. The cohesion has disappeared. The offense may or may not be good, but the defense is not. The standard of basketball is to prepare the defense solidly."
He continued, "If you look at the group stage match against Japan, the area where we had trouble was defense. Japan showed an organized and strong performance, but we only tried to compete on offense," he said. "If I become the final appointee, I will take care of all these areas." .
The men's national basketball team manager and coach selected this time will coach the national team from the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia Cup preliminaries in February 2024 to the FIBA Asia Cup finals in 2025.