[4] At the 2005 FIBA Asia Championship, South Korea's medal-winning streak finally ended when they lost to Qatar at the 3rd place game .

It interrupted China's championship winning streak in 1997, when it defeated its dominant neighbor in the semifinals and ultimately won the crown as 1997 Champion of Asia.

In the modern era, South Korea's competition from West Asia intensified as countries such as Jordan, Qatar, Lebanon, and especially Iran improved their basketball programs.

[6] Most of the players that played at the 2014 World Cup returned for the 2014 Asian Games where they helped secure the gold medal on home soil.

[7] At the 2018 Asian Games, South Korea was unable to defend their tournament gold medal due to the loss of key players to injuries.

South Korea struggled with injury problems to key players during the tournament but ended their losing streak at the World Cup.

[13][14] More signs of a "generational change" were visible as Kim called-up a squad composed only of players born in the 1990's for a 2022 FIBA Asia Cup qualifier against Indonesia.

[20] In preparation of South Korea's participation in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian qualifiers, a two-week break from the regular season was scheduled in February 2022 for the national team call-ups.

The Korean Basketball League was hit by the coronavirus as early as December 2021, with Changwon LG Sakers reporting their first case within the team.

[21] At the end of January 2022, KBL even made their first-ever match postponement due to the coronavirus, as multiple positive cases were reported in Seoul Samsung Thunders.

[28] The national basketball team took a major hit as most of the players on the preliminary roster submitted to FIBA at an earlier date, were infected by the coronavirus.

As a result, South Korea pulled out of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian qualifiers and was eventually disqualified.