Intae Hwang moved from South Korea to pursue his dreams of becoming an NBA referee; the NBA just promoted him to full-time staff official

Photo: Bleacher Report

According to Ben Golliver of the Washington Post, Intae Hwang moved his family 7,000 miles from South Korea to New Jersey to try to become the first NBA referee from outside North America.

Now, Hwang has been named a full-time NBA staff official for the ‘23 - ‘24 season.

“A South Korean native, Hwang refereed seven regular-season games as a non-staff official during the 2022-23 NBA season.  He has officiated two seasons in the NBA G League and one season in the WNBA.  Hwang also has 15 years of experience as a FIBA official, including the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup in China,” the NBA stated in a press release.

“Officiating is a kind of addiction,” Hwang said via the Washington Post. “After every single game, you feel so bad. People were yelling at me. What I read in the rule book, I forgot during the game. It was terrible. I wanted to get better and better. I want to be perfect, but now I’ve learned from my classes that we cannot be perfect. We can only be excellent.”

Hwang says that life is completely different in Fort Lee, NJ but that his family has found a big Korean community there. It’s been a cultural adjustment for him but he’s bonded with his co-workers over his love for the Cheesecake Factory.