Heo Hoon
Heo Hoon is a South Korean professional basketball player. He plays for Busan KCC Egis of the Korean Basketball League and the South Korea national team.
Early life
Heo enjoyed playing various sports from a young age but, due to his father's initial opposition, did not initially harbor dreams of becoming a professional athlete. He and his older brother spent a year-and-a-half of their elementary school years in the United States when their father was sent for coaching training and worked as a coach at Pepperdine University. During this period, the brothers were among the few Asians at their school and played basketball to escape being targets of racism and bullying. The family returned to South Korea when their father became the new Jeonju KCC Egis head coach. They attended their father's alma mater Yongsan Middle School and Yongsan High School, where they excelled at basketball and were called up to the youth national teams.As a high school student, Heo played a major role in Yongsan High School's run to the final of the National High School Basketball Championship, the main spring tournament, for two consecutive years and was named tournament MVP on both occasions. A highly-rated prospect, he was scouted by college basketball powerhouses Yonsei University and Korea University, before ultimately committing to Yonsei where his brother was already attending. He was allowed to join the Yonsei team for the 2013 fall semester while he completed his final year of high school.
College career
Heo majored in sports industry studies at Yonsei University. Although already known to the public for being the younger son of basketball legend Hur Jae, he quickly shed the label after winning the Rookie of the Year award and impressing as a sophomore during the Professional-Amateur Series, an annual tournament in which college teams play a series of practice games against KBL professional teams.As a junior, Heo was a major contributor to Yonsei winning the MBC Cup for the first time in eleven years, scoring points in the double digits in three out of five tournament games. Despite having the opportunity to declare eligibility early for the 2016 rookie draft, he chose not to as he felt unprepared to go professional and to honor his parents' wishes that he complete his studies. With Choi Jun-yong turning professional and graduating, Heo succeeded him as team captain. Yonsei lost in the MBC Cup final to rival Korea University and also lost out to them in the regular season title but he ended his senior year on a high by leading Yonsei to their second consecutive championship to end Korea University's dominance. He scored against Korea University in both legs of the championship final, recording a double-double in the first leg, and was named championship MVP.
Professional career
KT Sonicboom (2017–2025)
2017–2020
Heo was drafted by Busan KT Sonicboom in the 2017 rookie draft as their first pick in the first round. Despite being evaluated as one of the more "pro ready" prospects of the draft, there were initial concerns about his height – at 180 cm he was considered short for a guard even by KBL standards. He made his debut in the Korean Basketball League on 7 November 2017 against Seoul SK Knights, with 15 points, 7 assists and 2 rebounds recorded in 23 minutes. His rookie season was overshadowed by an injury which sidelined him for almost a month, him being forced to play in an unfamiliar hybrid shooting guard-cum-point guard role, and KT finishing at the bottom of the league table, but he managed to average 10.6 points in 26 games and establish himself as a regular by the end of the season.During Heo's second season, new head coach Seo Dong-chul switched tactics and effectively paired him with another guard to alternate between the shooting guard and point guard roles. Alongside fellow 2017 draftee forward Yang Hong-seok, Heo was a major contributor to KT qualifying for the play-offs for the first time in five seasons. He contributed a career-high 25 points, 17 of which was scored in the third quarter alone, in the February game against Seoul SK Knights to end KT's four-game losing streak.
The 2019–20 season was Heo's break-out season, despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic during the last few rounds. During the October game against Wonju DB Promy at home, he scored nine consecutive three-point shots, tying Cho Sung-won's fifteen-year-old record for the most consecutive three-point shots in a single game; KT Sonicboom had been trailing the visitors before Heo's fourth quarter record-breaking feat brought the score up but still lost 83–82. In February 2020 against Anyang KGC, he put up 24 points and 21 assists, becoming the first player in KBL history to score over 20 points and 20 assists in a single game. In that same game, he also reached the KBL record for the most assists in a quarter, with eight, tying with Kim Seung-hyun and Moon Tae-jong. Among domestic players, he was the top-scoring guard and ranked second only behind forward Song Kyo-chang of Jeonju KCC Egis by a slim margin of 0.1 points, earning him a reputation as a combo guard equally proficient at scoring points and providing assists. Despite his performances and productive partnership with Yang, KT was only able to finish the season in sixth place, the final play-off spot. He was named into the KBL Best 5 for the first time and voted regular season MVP for the 2019–20 season. With this win, Heo and his father became the first father-son duo in domestic basketball history to win an MVP award; his father had previously won the equivalent several times during the semi-professional pre-KBL era and a play-off MVP in the first season of the newly-established KBL. Additionally, his nine consecutive three-pointers were voted "Play of the Season".
2020–2022
The 2020–21 season saw Heo achieve a number of milestones and records. He ended the season with an average of 15.63 points per game, surpassing his previous personal record, and led the league in assists overall for a second consecutive season. Additionally, he became the first domestic player to lead in points scored and assists, as well as the first domestic player since Seo Jang-hoon to lead in both the domestic and overall statistical categories; Seo led in points scored and rebounds for the 1998–99 season. In the October game against Anyang KGC, he surpassed his personal record for points scored in a single game, scoring 33 points, including a 16-meter buzzer beater from the half-court line to tie the score and force the game into overtime. In December, he was nominated for and won the Male Basketball Player of the Year, voted for by league coaches and his KBL peers, at the annual Dong-a Sports Awards honoring domestic professional athletes across all disciplines. During the March game against Anyang KGC, he and Yang both recorded double-doubles, marking the first time in KBL history two domestic players recorded double-doubles in a single game. Heo's double-double was his tenth of the season, the first time since the 2006–07 season a player has achieved ten or more double-doubles in points and assists. Although he missed out on the season MVP to Song, he was named into the KBL Best 5 for the second consecutive season. He was also named Player of the Year and voted into the "Best 5" of Rookie the Basket magazine's annual Players' Choice Awards.Heo ruptured his ankle ligaments during a pre-season practice game in September and was out for the entire first round of the 2021–22 season. He returned for the November game against Changwon LG Sakers and contributed 20 points in a 89–80 win. The aftereffects of his injury continued to affect him for the next two months, limiting his playing time. Although his statistics were lower than the previous two seasons, he contributed by scoring in clutch situations and during the second half. He notably scored during decisive moments in several of KT's narrow wins, such as a buzzer beater against Changwon LG Sakers with 2.2 seconds left, the decisive equalizer against Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus during the last minute of the fourth quarter after orchestrating KT's comeback from a 22-point deficit, and a tie-breaker against Daegu KOGAS Pegasus during the last 30 seconds. In January against Anyang KGC, he became the 48th player in KBL history to reach 1,000 career assists as KT ended a four-game losing streak to win 77–66. In March, he achieved his first double-double of the season.
2022–2025
Heo enlisted for mandatory military service and was assigned to the Sangmu basketball team after the 2021-22 season ended. His contemporaries included several of his national teammates and they led the team to win the first D League title in four years. He scored 26 points in the final against Changwon LG Sakers. Despite not participating in pre-season training, he immediately returned to the line-up just days after his discharge and scored 26 points against Seoul SK Knights in his first game of the 2023-24 season. However he struggled with injuries, including a broken nose in December, and ankle and calf problems that ruled him out for much of January In spite of his injury struggles he maintained an average of 14.9 points in the 13 games he had played in before the January injury lay-off. KT finished fourth in the regular season but still managed to reach the Championship finals for the first time in franchise history. Heo's partnership with Paris Bass was key to KT's historic run, the duo averaging a combined 45 points in 14 games during the playoffs. Busan KCC Egis eventually won the finals 4-1 but Heo was singled out for praise, with various media publications summing up KT's performance during the series as Heo's "one-man show" and KCC coach Jeon Chang-jin praising him in the post-celebrations interview. He put up 37 points in Game 3, the second highest ever recorded by a domestic player during a Championship game, behind his father's former Busan Kia Enterprise teammate small forward ; he shares the record with Cho Sung-won and Kim Sun-hyung. His average of 26.6 points in the finals set a new record for domestic players.Ahead of the 2024-25 season, Heo took over Moon Seong-gon as team captain. His form was inconsistent during the early half of the season due to various minor injuries and overexertion. Due to the lack of consistent scoring options, he was forced to play the first eight games of the season while nursing an injury to his non-dominant wrist, averaging 17.4 points and recording double-doubles in two of those games. The KBL's newly-implemented Asian quota allowed KT to sign Filipino rookie guard JD Cagulangan in January, which freed him to return to his playmaking role. He regained his form by Round 6 as KT was battling for a place in the playoffs, ultimately finishing fourth for a second consecutive time in the regular season.