The Korea Basketball Association appointed former Samsung coach Ahn Joon-ho as its new head coach through a board meeting on Sunday. The competition was held earlier, and the committee on the performance improvement on April 19 recommended Ahn as the final candidate for the board of directors and decided on the appointment on the day.
Coach Ahn, who went through Shin Gwang-Commercial High School and Kyung Hee University, took over as SK coach in 1997 after serving as a women's basketball leader, and served as Samsung coach from 2000 to 2003.
In May 2004, he was appointed as Samsung coach and led the team to win once and the runner-up twice during seven seasons. Notably, he led the team to advance to the playoffs during all seven seasons.
After stepping down as Samsung coach in 2011, he became an administrator as he served as game director and executive director of the KBL. He had no coaching experience for about 12 years, which was considered a weakness.
Many analysts say that the fact that Seo Dong-cheol, former coach of Suwon KT who will be with him as a coach, was on the scene until last season compensated for Ahn's weakness.
In particular, new coach Seo was a coach when Ahn led Samsung's heyday.
Men's basketball failed to advance to the semifinals at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, which ended in October, and only won no medal for the first time in 17 years since the 2006 Doha Games.
The new coaching staff under coach Ahn Joon-ho and coach Seo Dong-cheol will take the helm from the FIBA Asia Cup qualifying round next month to the FIBA Asia Cup finals in 2025.
Meanwhile, Jeon Byung-joon, who took the helm at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, will continue to coach the women's three-on-three national team.
In the case of men's three to three, it was decided to proceed with the contest again. Lee Sang-yoon, a commentator of Sporty B, who was eliminated from the 5 to 5 director contest, applied alone.
Meanwhile, the association announced 24 preliminary entries for the national team ahead of the Asian Cup qualifying round.
Heo Woong (KCC) and Heo Hoon (KT) brothers, Choi Joon-yong, Ra Gun-ah and Song Kyo-chang (both KCC) and Lee Hyun-joong (Illawara), who is active in the Australian league, were listed. Among the rookies, Park Moo-bin (Hyundai Mobis) was included.