At the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, men's basketball, a popular sport, won a gold medal in a foreign country rather than at home for the first time in 44 years. There are many factors behind the team's rise to the top by beating China, Iran, and Japan despite being in the process of a generational change, but in particular, the leadership of coach Nicolais Majuls is in the spotlight. The fact that he achieved such remarkable results in just 9 months after taking office with new leadership that was not seen in Korean leaders in the past deserves full praise.
It was a refreshing shock to see our national team play cool and fast on both offense and defense. It was on a different level from Korean basketball, which was somewhat frustrating in the past. In particular, it was honestly as amazing as it was unfamiliar to see China and Iran, two of the tallest teams, seem to be dominating in many ways as they did in this tournament. Rather than relying on the individual skills of a specific shooter or big man, the court is widely used and all five players play fast and organic patterns in both offense and defense, and the qualities of 'Euro Basketball' are beginning to be seen in our national team.
Majuls, who is successfully transplanting the Euro system, is reminiscent of coach Guus Hiddink, who led Korean soccer to the world semifinals, an unprecedented feat. The two great generals are very similar in many ways, including the environment in which they took office, their leadership style, the way they improved their constitution, and their dramatic achievements. It is not awkward to apply the concept of โparallel theoryโ. Both are from European countries, and although they were not star players during their playing days, they steadily built their careers as coaches, achieved results, and built their own worlds.
Above all, they both have something in common: they are the first foreign coaches in the history of their respective sports. Hiddink was the coach who was 'brought in' from the Netherlands to achieve his long-cherished wish of advancing to the round of 16 for the first time or, in the worst case, winning the finals for the first time, in order to avoid 'embarrassment at home' ahead of the first tournament (2002 Korea-Japan World Cup) that the team is co-hosting with Japan (the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup). Men's basketball was also in a desperate state as it had to wash away the humiliation of falling to 7th place in the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou. The basketball world, which needed shock therapy to break the old mold, attempted reform by appointing a young leader from Latvia, Eastern Europe, to the head of the national team after much debate.
As both Hiddink and Majuls are foreigners, the same thing is true: they ignored all existing names and connections and selected players based solely on their recent skills. There was no room for the influence of the association or the affiliated team to enter. Many say that this part was crucial to the performance of the two directors. When you look at the so-called โHiddink childrenโ who played a big role in the 2002 World Cup and advanced overseas in large numbers, you nod your head. Park Ji-sung, Lee Young-pyo, Lee Eul-yong, Kim Nam-il, and Song Jong-guk might have ended up as mediocre players without Hiddink. There was no need for a name for โMajulshoโ either. Quite a few stars failed to get on board, and instead, a large number of young players were selected who were physically strong and fast enough to play non-stop offense and defense changes and pattern plays for 40 minutes. In particular, all-round players who were as good at defense as they were at offense were used.
The same goes for the fact that they suffered crushing defeats in evaluation matches and other competitions before the targeted tournament, receiving a lot of criticism and calls for replacement. Even the style of experimenting with the originally prepared tactics and player selection one by one, regardless of the criticism boiling like a pot, was similar. As you know, the original nickname of Hiddink, now a national hero, was โOh Dae-youngโ. It was a nickname given to him mockingly, saying, "Go back to your country quickly," after being defeated 0 to 5 in a series of evaluation matches against European powerhouses. Coach Majuls also went through a brutal adjustment period. When a young team without veteran stars suffered consecutive losses in the World Cup qualifiers, criticism poured in, saying, "A B-level coach from the periphery of Europe turned Korean basketball into a lab rat." Fans could not bear the inevitable trial and error adjustment period, but Majuls proved everything with the results.
There are some differences between Majuls and Hiddink. Although both of them had nothing special during their playing days, there was a difference in their coaching careers. Hiddink was treated specially as a world-class captain even before he took over as the Korean national team. When he came to Korea, he brought along the โHiddink Divisionโ and was promised a large salary and bonus. However, Majuls is known to have received an annual salary of about 100 million won on a two-year contract, and the conditions were poor as he took over alone without even bringing a coaching staff. After winning the gold medal at the Asian Games, coach Majuls' annual salary and that of national soccer team coach Hong Myung-bo, known to be worth more than 2 billion won, became a hot topic for comparison.
When asked why he cried after winning the gold medal in a joint interview at the Asian Games, national team ace Lee Hyun-joong said it was because he was very grateful for Coach Majuls' hard work. โCoach Majuls, who is a foreigner, went through a lot of hardships. He came alone without a division, did not give in to being in a foreign country, worked well with us, and won the gold medal. I am grateful to the coach. I think I shed a lot of tears because of the coach.โ It was rare for a player to show such emotions while mentioning a coach, so it attracted attention. Coach Majuls said his next goal is for Korea to achieve good results at the Olympics. We look forward to seeing Korean basketball, which has undergone a complete transformation under the new leadership, excel not only in Asia but also on the world stage.
