Möttölä made the surprise announcement after helping the Finns preserve their EuroBasket Division A status with a fourth-place finish in Group A in this summer’s qualifying campaign for next year’s Final Round in Poland.
The finish, in fact, has kept alive Finland’s faint hopes of reaching Poland as they will be among six teams in the Additional Qualifying Round.
“It's been a great honor coaching a player like Hanno,” Dettmann said.
“I am happy that I have been able to work closely with such a great player.
“There are only a few players who would turn down the Euros that are still available for Hanno in European competitions. Some might question his decision, but it just shows that his values are somewhere else.”
Those values, Möttölä says, are with his family.
He has a four-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son.
“I have been planning on retiring for a while now and coming home with my family after spending 12 years abroad,” he said.
“It was a good time to make the decision.
“I want to focus on my family for now.”
Dettmann, in his first spell as Finland coach, called Möttölä into the national team at the tender age of 18 and took him to the 1995 EuroBasket in Athens.
That decision caused quite a stir, indicating that Möttölä was a player who was going to have a special career.
The game against Hungary on September 20, his last, was a victory for Finland. It was also his 100th with the senior national side.
“I think Hanno's story is one of a young kid loving every kind of competition and maturing into a great athlete who dedicated his last playing years for his national team and his home country,” Dettmann said.
Möttölä was the first-ever Finn to reach the NBA and he was also the first from his country in the Euroleague, not to mention the first Finland player to compete in that competition’s Final Four.
A record eight times Möttölä was voted Basketball Player of the Year in Finland.
Even before his professional days, Möttölä raised eyebrows in America.
He played college basketball at Utah under Rick Majerus and in 1998 reached the NCAA Final Four, even making it to the title game.
Möttölä made four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances with Utah.
His statistics suggested that he could have been an impact player for years to come for Finland.
Möttölä averaged 11.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in this summer’s campaign which saw Finland hand Serbia their only defeat in Division A.
But he has decided to write a new chapter in his life.
There will be, he says, another chapter about basketball.
“Although my playing days are over, I will be involved somehow later on,” he said.
“I want to give back to Finnish basketball. When and how - that will be determined in the future.”
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