Ham Ji-hoon

Ham Ji-hoon (born December 11, 1984) is a South Korean professional basketball player. He plays for Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus in the Korean Basketball League and is the club's captain and longest-serving player after Yang Dong-geun.

Early life and college career Ham attended Kyungbock High School and played as a forward before being converted into a center at Chung-Ang University. Although his height, at just under 200 cm, is not considered tall for a center even by KBL standards, he stood out for his physicality. They also won the 2007 National Basketball Festival competition, the main collegiate competition of that time.

Professional career Having been overshadowed by his Chung-Ang teammates, Ham mostly flew under the radar and it was reflected in his draft ranking. He was drafted tenth overall at the 2007 rookie draft by Ulsan Mobis Phoebus. Under Yoo Jae-hak, he developed a reputation as a "blue worker", a Konglish corruption of the term blue-collar worker and a colloquialism in domestic basketball used to describe an unflashy yet essential player often tasked with defending the post or the more physical aspects of the team strategy. By his second season, he had played in all five positions.

After Yang Dong-geun's retirement, Ham became the team captain and their longest-serving player. He reached two career benchmarks within days of each other during the 2021–21 season: scoring 7,000 points and recording 2,400 assists.

Personal life Ham married his girlfriend of six years in April 2012. They have two sons.