How South Korea Basketball's 2-Year Reform Led to Historic Asian Games Success

A Continental Sweep Without Stars

South Korea’s basketball programs secured three gold medals and one bronze across four events at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. The haul stunned regional analysts. The men’s roster achieved this without naturalized players, while the women’s team competed without its top stars—specifically missing their star tandem Park Ji-su and Park Ji-hyun. According to reports from The Fact, the historic campaign featured a sweep of the host nation Japan by the men’s team, whom they defeated twice including in the final, alongside victories over strong opponents Jordan and Iran. It also included a crucial semifinal victory by the women’s team over a formidable Chinese squad featuring 226-centimeter center Zhang Ziyu, followed by a victory in the final against a Japanese team they had previously suffered seven consecutive losses to. Both the men’s and women’s programs claimed their fifth title in the tournament’s history. Meanwhile, the men’s 3×3 team achieved an undefeated championship with six wins, decisively beating powerhouses such as China in the quarterfinals, the Philippines in the semifinals, and Qatar in the final, marking their best performance since winning the silver medal at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. The women’s 3×3 team captured the nation’s first-ever medal in the event by winning bronze.

The Blueprints for Institutional Change

This continental dominance was built on a two-year restructuring initiative. Jeong Jae-yong assumed the role of full-time vice president of the Korea Basketball Association on April 1, 2024. Jeong brought an unconventional background to the post, having originally started as an elite football player who gave up his athletic dreams due to an injury in middle school. Professionally, he worked as a broadcasting journalist specializing in sports, having joined KBS in 1995 through the 22nd open recruitment and later serving as head of the sports news department and director of sports. Upon taking office, he introduced an exhaustive blueprint titled the "Republic of Korea Basketball Future Strategic Report."

S. Korea beats Japan for men's Asian Games basketball gold

Dismantling Patronage Networks

The association overhauled its personnel decisions. Out went historical ties and regional affiliations; in came strict merit-based selection criteria for both coaching staffs and national team rosters. Jeong appointed accomplished professional coaches Yoo Jae-hak and Wi Sung-woo as chairmen of the performance improvement committee for the men’s and women’s programs, respectively. Together, these committees established transparent evaluation frameworks designed to shatter traditional patronage networks within the national selection process. Under these frameworks, coaches and players were selected through continuous discussions and consultations with the committee chairmen and members, eliminating previous practices of distributing coaching staff and player spots based on school ties and regional connections.

Friction With the Domestic Establishment

Systemic change met sharp resistance. To secure compliance, Jeong relied on sustained consultations and gradual, consensus-building measures. He convinced reluctant stakeholders of the absolute necessity of professionalized national team operations, noting that the hardest part was persuading some opposing basketball people during the execution phase because many situations still lacked logic and common sense. As he stated, We advanced our plans step by step at a level where basketball people could accept changes in the system. He added, In fact, we didn’t do anything special to strengthen the national team’s power; we simply pushed forward according to principles, and The association merely supported the national team to the best of its ability within the limits of its finances while keeping these principles, and everything else was done by the national team itself.

From Domestic Activation to 2032 Olympic Targets

The reform agenda stretched far beyond traditional five-on-five hardwood competition. It aggressively elevated the nation’s 3×3 infrastructure. This push was highlighted by the successful “Olpfark Tour” activation in 2024, a grassroots drive that directly fueled a gold-medal sweep by the men’s 3×3 squad and a historic bronze medal for the women’s 3×3 team at the Nagoya games. Looking ahead, the association’s strategic roadmap outlines long-term performance targets, aiming for top-eight finishes for the men’s team and top-four finishes for the women’s team at the 2032 Olympic Games.