Intae Hwang wanted to play basketball. His parents wouldn’t allow it.
He made it to the NBA anyway.
Hwang took the ultimate leap of faith nearly three years ago, moving his family halfway around the world, from his native South Korea to a new home in New Jersey, to follow his dream of becoming an NBA referee. He’s inching closer to making it a reality after working a few preseason games this month, including Monday’s Washington-Charlotte matchup, and is expected to get some off-staff official assignments 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 is all. I never, ever tried to get into the NBA on my own.”
Instead, the NBA found him.
Hwang has been an officer for almost 20 years and it wasn’t always easy; a coach headbutted him in 2014 and said it left him evaluating 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. In the same way that NBA teams look for player talent Internationally, the NBA also seeks referee talent from around the world.
And out of those Rio Games came an invitation from the NBA to come to Las Vegas for the 2017 Summer League. With that, Hwang’s journey truly began. The league continued to follow his career after he returned to South Korea, building a relationship, and finally had to make a decision.
“Intae showed a tremendous ability to learn quickly, apply quickly,” said Monty McCutchen, the NBA’s senior vice president of referee oversight. “She had a dream to be part of our program. He came here and was part of our referee development program, which we used as a way for him to learn the language and the culture. He got into our pipeline on merit, not on any promise. He moved here without any promises.
Hwang and his family moved to the US in January 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic hit weeks later. Exuding optimism, Hwang saw that as an opportunity, and during all those months without basketball he studied the G League and NBA games, and continued to work on his command of English.
He has been a referee in the G-League, now he has some experience in the NBA preseason, and that trajectory is on his way to becoming a full-fledged NBA referee.
“All he did was work, day in and day out,” McCutchen said.
Referees have to make split-second decisions. So once the NBA invite came, it didn’t take long for Hwang to make up his mind.
“I was only worried about my family, my wife, my son and my daughter,” Hwang said. “My wife sacrificed a lot, because she couldn’t speak English at all. Now she can (say) ‘thank you, hello,’ that kind of thing.”
But his family loves it here. He is grateful for the opportunity. And even though the dream of becoming a basketball player never materialized (his parents were athletes and wanted more from his son), he still found his way to the top league in the world.
“I love basketball,” he said.
