‘Special naturalized player’ Ra Gun-ah (KCC), who has been the backbone of Korean basketball, has expressed his desire to continue playing for the national team.

The men’s basketball team, led by Chu Il-seung, lost 70-84 to host China in the quarterfinals of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games on Wednesday at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Hangzhou, 토토 Zhejiang Province, China.

The loss ended the team’s quest for gold. The best they can hope for now is a fifth-place finish, which would be achieved by winning the fifth-place game on Saturday after the ranking game against Iran on Sunday.

“Actually, my contract with the Korean national team is over. I don’t really know if they (the national team) will extend my contract or just let me go,” he said.

“I hope I can stay with the team. I hope I can help my teammates grow,” he added.

The Asian Games were, in fact, what Lagana had previously labeled as her “final stage.

In July of last year, after the FIBA Asia Cup, she posted on social media that she would finish her career with the Korean national team at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

At the time, she wrote, “I’m so proud of my teammates. I’m looking forward to my last Asian Games next year. My time with the national team is coming to an end,” he wrote.

Ragan-ah was granted South Korean citizenship in 2018 after passing an interview with the Ministry of Justice’s Nationality Review Committee as an outstanding talent in the field of athletics, and went on to excel in various international competitions including the FIBA World Cup and the Asia Cup, starting with the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games that year.

According to basketball insiders, Ragan-ah was granted special naturalization on the condition that he would receive a separate allowance and be called up to the national team.

His contract with Jeonju KCC runs until May 2024, which is a “four-way contract” that involves the national team and the KBL as well as a professional basketball organization.

With no medal chances at the Asian Games, the team has no major international competitions until May next year. The “contract is over” comment was likely made in this context.

“I’m going to go back to Korea and play for my team, my club,” Lagana reiterated.

He also pointed out that the South Korean team that lost to China was not “at full strength.

“We gave it our all, but we weren’t at our best,” he said. “We had a lot of injuries, and we had to play against them after a tough night the night before.”

The team failed to qualify for the quarterfinals after falling 77-83 in a group game against Japan, a team they had beaten on March 30.

They were drawn to face host China just 14 hours after playing Bahrain in the quarterfinals the previous afternoon.

“The team needs to get healthy first. Then we can come back here and play our basketball,” he said.