"Jumping" Joe Hurst (born

East Saint Louis, Illinois East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a bu ...

), is a retired professional basketball player. In 1982, Hurst earned a sporting scholarship with Northwest Missouri State University. In five years, he played more than 200 games, and was all-conference representative for three years. During his last two seasons he was MVP and named in the All-MIAA First Team. Hurst was in his final year of university at Northwest Missouri State when he suffered an ankle injury derailing his NBA draft chances. Hurst left Northwest in the top five in both career scoring (1,580 points) and rebounding (777). He also set the all-time mark for blocked shots with 153. Hurst commenced his professional career in Australia where he played for the

Hobart Devils The Hobart Devils are a defunct professional basketball team that competed in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL). Based in Hobart, Tasmania, the team was the only representative from the state of Tasmania for the majority of its ten ...

in the National Basketball League. With the Devils he was the NBL Most Valuable Player in 1988, although he was not named in the All-NBL First Team for that year. He played again for the Devils in the 1989 and 1992 seasons. On Hurst's appearance on the Aussie Hoopla podcast he noted in retrospect he wished he had of returned to the USA after his MVP season in Australia where he was on a number of NBA team's radars and would have likely earned a contract with an NBA team that season. Hurst also played professionally for teams in Sweden, Iceland, Croatia, Indonesia and Portugal. Returning to Australia, he filled in an injury-filled roster at the

Canberra Cannons The Canberra Cannons are a defunct basketball team that competed in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL). They went into financial administration in 2003 and were relocated to Newcastle, where they became the Hunter Pirates. After t ...

for one games in 2001. Hurst currently resides in

Mildura Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area h ...

, Australia, where he works as a Youth Justice Worker.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurst, Joe Living people African-American basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Australia Basketball players from Illinois Canberra Cannons players Hobart Devils players Northwest Missouri State Bearcats men's basketball players American men's basketball players Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American people