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Korea recruits first foreign coach to revive struggling men's nat'l basketball team
Nikolajs Mazurs, the Korea men’s national basketball team’s first foreign head coach, speaks during a press conference in Jung-gu, central Seoul, Jan. 16. Yonhap
By Park Ung
45-year-old brings around two decades of coaching experience
The appointment of Nikolajs Mazurs as the first foreign head coach of Korea men’s national basketball team has drawn attention to whether he can revive an organization long considered an Asian powerhouse but one that has struggled in recent years.
Last month, the Korea Basketball Association (KBA) appointed the Latvian coach, saying the move was aimed at boosting international competitiveness and building a more systematic national team program ahead of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
The 45-year-old has around two decades of coaching experience, including work with Latvia’s youth national teams from the under-16 to under-20 levels and professional clubs in Russia and Lithuania. Korea is the first country he has coached outside Eastern Europe.
With the KBA setting goals of Asian Games gold and Olympic qualification, Mazurs said the chance to compete on the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Cup and Olympic stages was the primary reason he accepted the role.
“Every coach dreams of being part of the Olympic Games,” Mazurs said at a press conference last week, adding that taking charge of the Korean national team was a great opportunity.
“The team has potential. Korean basketball has big upside — culture, tradition and a lot of fans,” he said. “I’ve seen how the league is running and how many people support it.”
The Korea men’s national basketball team has struggled in recent years.
The team finished sixth at last year’s FIBA Asia Cup, the first time since the tournament began in 1960 that Korea failed to reach the top four in consecutive editions.
Korea was ranked 56th in FIBA’s world rankings released last September, down from 53rd in March and extending a slide that began with a 13-place drop to 51st in 2023.
Mazurs cited the team’s collective play as a strength but pointed to a lack of physicality as a weakness, saying more active use of naturalized players is key to addressing it.
Ricardo Ratliffe, a U.S.-born forward-center who gained Korean citizenship in 2018, was the only naturalized player to play on the team.
On the women’s side, Kiana Smith, a former Korean American point and shooting guard for the Yongin Samsung Life Blueminx, sought naturalization but failed to pass the Ministry of Justice’s screening, and retired last year.
Basketball has strict naturalization rules set by the Ministry of Justice and FIBA.
The ministry reviews applications only when candidates meet at least two of six criteria, such as serving as an international referee or competing in major events like the Olympics.
FIBA generally bars players who have represented a senior national team in international competition from switching nationality, except in rare cases.