After nearly 2 decades, big man Ham Ji-hoon set to pick and roll off into the sunset
Published: 01 Feb. 2026, 15:42
Updated: 03 Feb. 2026, 18:13
![Ham Ji-hoon of Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus warms up ahead of a game against Goyang Sono at Goyang Sono Arena on Jan. 27 after announcing he will retire at the end of this season. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/03/22da685c-47d8-46e7-bb32-8a7fcb84d198.jpg)
Ham Ji-hoon of Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus warms up ahead of a game against Goyang Sono at Goyang Sono Arena on Jan. 27 after announcing he will retire at the end of this season. [YONHAP]
Ham Ji-hoon never sought the spotlight. The KBL is giving it to him anyway.
Starting Friday, teams facing Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus will do so under slightly different circumstances. The league will begin a retirement tour for Ham, a forward who spent 18 seasons with the same club and helped define an era of Korean basketball.
Ham, 42, said Tuesday that he will retire after the 2025–26 season. The tour will allow fans in all 10 KBL arenas to offer a final farewell. Only one other player has received the honor: Kim Joo-sung, the longtime Wonju DB Promy star who now coaches the team.
Drafted 10th overall in 2007, Ham became the oldest active player in the league and one of its most durable. He has scored 8,338 points in 839 games, all with Hyundai Mobis. He declined the idea of a retirement tour for years, insisting he was not worthy of such attention.
He changed his mind for two reasons. He wanted his children to see him as a player who finished with pride. And he wanted younger players to know that loyalty and quiet commitment still matter.
Ham’s official retirement ceremony will take place on April 8, when Hyundai Mobis hosts the Changwon LG Sakers in its final regular-season home game.
Ham’s value is not simply that he has played for a long time. Alongside longtime head coach Yoo Jae-hak and once-star guard and current head coach Yang Dong-geun, Ham helped build the Hyundai Mobis dynasty and lifted the championship trophy five times.
![Ham Ji-hoon 14 years ago. [JOONGANG ILBO]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/03/dd1e85b9-ecb8-43fe-985d-e663ed8c0529.jpg)
Ham Ji-hoon 14 years ago. [JOONGANG ILBO]
In the 2009-10 season, he swept both the regular-season MVP and playoff MVP awards, establishing himself as the league’s top big man.
Ham is not unusually tall for a big man, nor is he known for flashy skills. Instead, he controlled games with an accurate shot, solid fundamentals and sharp basketball intelligence that caught opponents off guard. Fans saw his trademark style — neutralizing defenses with smart pivots and passing in the paint instead of thunderous dunks — as reminiscent of NBA great Tim Duncan. They nicknamed Ham “Ham Duncan.”
“Whether we were winning or losing, the fans never stopped cheering for us, and that’s what brought me to this point,” Ham said, giving all the credit to supporters. “Being able to receive that kind of love is the greatest honor of my life.”
Yang, who shared Hyundai Mobis’s glory days with Ham, now sends off his former teammate and on-court pupil as the head coach for Ham’s last dance.
“Honestly, it wouldn’t have been strange if Ji-hoon had retired a few years ago,” Yang said. “But I’m grateful he stayed with the team even past 40 and became a great example for the younger guys.”
![Changwon LG Sakers center Assem Marei, center, vies for the ball during a KBL playoff against Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus in Ulsan on April 28, 2025. [KBL]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/03/b1768460-ea70-42d4-8824-7fc39df1184e.jpg)
Changwon LG Sakers center Assem Marei, center, vies for the ball during a KBL playoff against Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus in Ulsan on April 28, 2025. [KBL]
Yang also gave him a new nickname, calling him “Ham Hangyeol,” playing on the Korean word for being unwavering, because Ham took on the grunt work with the same attitude, whether things were going well or not.
Ham responded that he liked the expression. “If people say I was a player the team truly needed, that’s enough. From the time I was a rookie, that was always my goal,” he said.
Rather than being a flashy star, Ham wanted to be a piece that filled gaps and brought teammates to life, and he did exactly that for 18 years. He ranked unusually high in career assists for a big man, showing what it means to be a passer in that role.
There is still regret in his final season. In Yang’s first year as head coach, Hyundai Mobis has endured a tough stretch, sitting in eighth place at 13 wins and 22 losses.
Ham said he feels both relieved and wistful at the thought of being freed from grueling training and physical battles.
At the same time, Ham said he is sorry to leave without giving Yang one more championship ring. “I wanted to retire with six rings with Dong-geun,” he said. “That’s what I regret most.”
Even so, the basketball world is bidding a warm farewell to “Ham Duncan,” the player who stayed the same on the court year after year.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY PIH JU-YOUNG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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