At the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, South Korea men’s basketball player Lee Hyun-jung embraced the national team while managing an NBA G League career, contrasting with controversies surrounding members of the nation’s football squad over military service exemptions, according to reports published by donga.com.
Military Service Exemptions Spark Public Debate Across Sports
While South Korea’s football representatives secured a gold medal at the 2026 Asian Games, several players faced public backlash after openly emphasizing the military service exemption as their primary motivation, with remarks about the proximity of their mandatory enlistment dominating their post-victory comments, donga.com reported. In South Korea, athletes who win gold medals at the Asian Games or podium finishes at the Olympics earn the right to fulfill their mandatory military service through sports-related community service rather than active duty, a policy rooted in social consensus to protect careers requiring international competitiveness during a player’s twenties.
Lee Hyun-jung Connects National Duty with Professional Realities
Basketball national team member Lee Hyun-jung approached his own military exemption with a markedly different perspective after helping secure South Korea’s first Asian Games title in 12 years, donga.com noted. If I said I wasn’t happy, that would be a lie, but winning a gold medal doesn’t mean it’s over,
Lee stated, adding that he must work harder to repay the national consideration behind the benefit. Lee faced immediate career pressures heading into the 2026–2027 season, having signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Portland Trail Blazers that placed him in the NBA G League awaiting a call-up without guaranteed minimum salary protections or job security, according to donga.com reporting.
🇯🇵 JAPAN ARE ASIAN GAMES CHAMPIONS! 🏆Harimoto, Matsushima and Togami defeat China to win Men’s Team Gold at the 2026 Asian Games! 🔥Japan become the first non-Chinese nation to win the men’s team title since South Korea in 1990 in Beijing. 👀 pic.twitter.com/IxuFrPcJEy
Jet-Lagged and Driven Through International Preparation
Despite his precarious professional standing, Lee prioritized national team commitments over individual risk, joining the squad directly from U.S. training sessions for the FIBA Asia Cup without adequate time to adjust to the time difference, donga.com outlined. Refusing to lean on excuses during preparation matches, Lee declared that players must perform in any environment, diving for loose balls as if he were an endangered rookie rather than the team’s primary offensive weapon, donga.com reported. Following a heartbreaking semifinal loss to China at the previous year’s continental tournament where the squad was labeled the weakest in the field, Lee urged his teammates to improve individually and reunite, paving the way for victories over China in the semifinals and Japan in the final.
Chasing World Cup and Olympic Ambitions
With the regional gold medal secured, Lee turned his sights toward loftier international benchmarks, telling donga.com that he wants to win FIBA World Cup and Olympic titles to establish global recognition for South Korean basketball. South Korea’s men’s program has not appeared in an Olympic tournament since the 1996 Atlanta Games, making Lee’s ambitions a classic ‘moonshot’—a pursuit of an extremely improbable goal through daily self-improvement and relentless perseverance, donga.com detailed.
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