Oswego’s Marshall Cho rubs shoulders with some of the world’s best as an assistant at the 2023 Nike Hoop Summit

THE OREGONIAN | By Nik Streng | Apr. 09, 2023, 10:32 a.m.

Just over a month ago, Marshall Cho stood courtside in the Lake Oswego High School gym, huddling up with players like Winters Grady and Max Archambo. This past week, Cho found himself working with some of the best basketball players in the world as he was an assistant coach for the men’s World Select team at the 2023 Nike Hoop Summit.

Cho’s roster this week included many future Division I college basketball players, including Nigerian Duke commit Mackenzie Mgbako and Canadian Miami commit Michael Nwoko.

Cho has worked with USA Basketball for 10 years, and has worked in other capacities at the Nike Hoop Summit before, but the 2023 game was his first chance to coach in it.

“This year I got the official invite to be on the world side, so I took it and the chance to learn from Kaleb Canales and work with these players, that’s hard to pass,” he said.

And he might be one of the best fits for the World Select team. Cho was born in Seoul, South Korea before moving to Oregon. Through Teach for America, Cho was brought to the South Bronx and Harlem to start his basketball coaching career and then spent years coaching in Mozambique with Basketball Without Borders.

“I started my coaching career, not many people know this but I started really in Harlem and then spent three years in Mozambique, Africa. It really gave me a foundation of appreciation for international players,” he said.

Cho said one of the highlights of the week was the scrimmage on Friday, where Lake Oswego High School — where the World Select team practiced all week — was host to both teams. He said he hopes he can use that experience as a jumping off platform to future outreach by some Oregon schools.

“I was finally able to bring the world to Lake Oswego,” he said. “So hopefully the next chapter is trying to take our kids in Lake Oswego, or Portland, or the greater Oregon area out to see what I got a chance to see.”

Another highlight of the week, Cho said, was bonding with players from all over the world. The World Select had players from South Sudan, Senegal, Canada, Jamaica, Finland, Nigeria, Cameroon, France, Guinea, Greece and Australia.

“The brotherhood that we built in this past week, I’m looking forward to visiting many of these players in their home country, supporting them and continuing to just be a bridge between Portland and the rest of the world.”

Cho said that the week was such a perfect blend as he views Portland as a city with both a strong basketball presence and a large mix of cultures. He’s hoping that some Oregon schools will be able to travel in the future to experience both other cultures and a more diverse array of basketball talents.

“I just see a ton of potential moving forward,” Cho said. “I think, for me to get an experience like this motivates me even more to do whatever small part I can to help raise the game in the state of Oregon. And a lot of that involves us finding ways to get out.”

While Cho has proven to be a respected coach in the OSAA ranks — the Lakers won the Three Rivers League in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and he was the league coach of the year all three years — he said working with Canales has been invaluable. Since 2008 Canales has been an assistant coach with the Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers.

And what Cho saw in working with Canales was a coach who immediately set the tone and got buy in from his team from the get-go.

“What I got to see this week is just seeing how a professional coach treated these young men to be professionals. To set the bar there,” Cho said. “It’s not pushing them to go meet it. It’s telling them where it is and leaving it up to the players to make that choice to seek after. There’s a thing in basketball, ‘dominate the simple.’ Canales did that today. Really great to follow his lead and hopefully I can do the same.”

As a high school coach, Cho is no stranger to having the pressure of parents around him. On Saturday night, he had the eyes of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James across the court as his son, Bronny, was playing for Team USA.

“Obviously I knew he was coming in, but during the game you get so caught up in the game,” he said. “But from all accounts it sounds to me like Bronny has been just a super teammate, you know, humble and just hard working. I think that’s a reflection of the incredible job that the whole family has done.”