"What Kind of Tournament Is This?" South Korean Basketball Team Loses Entire Practice Session After Bus No-Show Ahead of Japan Game [Nagoya Asian Games]

[Financial News] The final hurdle in South Korea's bid for its first Asian Games gold medal in 12 years was already daunting: a fateful final against host Japan. Yet, on the very day of the game, an incident unfolded that was virtually impossible to accept. South Korea's men's national basketball team lost its entire pre-final practice session after the event organizing committee failed to send its scheduled bus.
South Korea's men's national basketball team will play host Japan in the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games final at Aichi International Arena in Nagoya at 7:40 p.m. on the 20th.
According to people in basketball circles, the team had planned to travel to a separate gym that morning for shooting practice and its final warm-up ahead of the championship game. However, the vehicle scheduled to arrive around 10 a.m. failed to show up without explanation. Left stranded as they waited endlessly for the bus, the team had no choice but to cancel its precious morning practice on the day of the final.
The event had already drawn widespread complaints from delegations around the world before its opening because of the collapse of its accommodation and transportation systems. South Korea's delegation had also fallen victim to several major transportation failures. On the 14th, a vehicle assigned to Hwang Sun-hong's official press conference for the men's national soccer team failed to arrive, causing him to be late. During the Qatar match on the 15th, a bus driver got lost and arrived at the stadium 30 minutes late. On the 16th, a vehicle assigned to take the soccer team to its training venue failed to show up altogether.


The disappearance of the basketball team's bus can likewise be viewed as part of the event's broader operational breakdown. But the timing and the target are what make it especially problematic. Just hours before the gold-medal game against Japan, the incident effectively prevented the team from holding its most important shooting practice.
That is why sharp suspicions have emerged that this was more than a simple administrative mistake—that it amounted to the host country's petty home-field bullying or even deliberate interference with training. South Korea had already gained the upper hand by defeating Japan 100-83 in their group-stage meeting on the 13th.
The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) recognized the seriousness of the situation and immediately took a hard-line response. The KSOC stated, "At the delegation level, we plan to send a letter of protest to the event organizing committee and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), and strongly request a meeting with senior organizing committee officials."
The KSOC had previously lodged official complaints with the organizing committee over the controversy surrounding a welcome ceremony for Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the men's hockey national anthem fiasco.
Even in the face of the host organizers' outrageous conduct, South Korea's players did not waver.
A Korea Basketball Association official said, "The delegation is neither shaken nor agitated ahead of the final. We will remain calm, maintain our composure, prepare for the final with the time remaining, and show everything we have on the court."


[email protected] Jeon Sang-il Reporter