Intae Hwang wanted to play basketball. His parents wouldn’t allow it.
He still reached the NBA.
Almost three years ago, Hwang took the ultimate leap of faith: he and his family moved halfway around the world, from their native South Korea to a new home in New Jersey, to pursue his dream of becoming an NBA referee. He’s getting closer after working on a couple of preseason games this month – including Monday’s Washington-Charlotte contest – and is expected to get some non-staff officer duties during the regular season.
“The NBA was just my dream,” Hwang said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I saw it on TV right? That’s it. I never tried to get into the NBA on my own.”
Instead, the NBA found him.
Hwang has been a civil servant for nearly 20 years, and it hasn’t always been easy; He was headbutted by a coach in 2014, and he says it made him evaluate his future. But he stayed in the game and was selected by FIBA - the sport’s international governing body – to be part of the refereeing corps for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Much like NBA teams look for player talent internationally, the NBA also looks for refereeing talent around the world.
And from those Rio games came an invitation from the NBA to come to Las Vegas for the 2017 Summer League. This really started Hwang’s journey. The league continued to follow his career after he returned to South Korea, formed a relationship and eventually he had to make a decision.
“Intae has demonstrated a tremendous capacity for rapid learning and rapid application,” said Monty McCutchen, the NBA’s senior vice president who oversees umpires. “He had a dream to be part of our program. He came here and was part of our referee development programme, which we used to learn the language and culture. He came into our pipeline on merit, not with He moved here with no promises.”
Hwang and his family moved to the United States in January 2020. Weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Hwang, who exudes optimism, saw it as an opportunity – and in all the months away from basketball, he studied the G League and NBA games and continued to work on his English skills.
He was a G League official, now has some NBA preseason experience and this path puts him on the path to becoming a full NBA umpire.
“Everything he did was put in the work, day in, day out,” McCutchen said.
Referees have to make split-second decisions. That’s why it didn’t take long for Hwang to make up his mind after being invited by the NBA.
“I was just worried about my family, my wife and my son and daughter,” Hwang said. “My wife sacrificed a lot because she couldn’t speak English at all. Now she can say ‘thank you, hello’, things like that.”
But his family loves it here. He’s grateful for the chance. And although his dream of becoming a basketball player never materialized – his parents were both athletes and wanted more from their son – he still found his way into the world’s top league.
“I love basketball,” he said.