Ronald Jordan Hunter (born October 24, 1993) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player who last played for the

Sydney Kings The Sydney Kings are an Australian men's professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League (NBL). The team is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The Kings were formed from a merger between the West Sydney Westars and the ...

of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL). Hunter played college basketball for the Georgia State Panthers under the direction of his father and Georgia State head coach, Ron Hunter. There, he was twice named Sun Belt Player of the Year as well as the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...

Male Athlete of the Year. He holds the school record for most career points with a total of 1,819 after just three seasons of play.

High school career

Hunter attended Pike High School in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

averaging 20.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.9 steals per game as a senior. That year he led Pike to the Indiana State Championships, ending as a runner-up, and in the process earned All-Marion County First Team, a conference player of the year award and an Indiana All-Star mention.

College career

Hunter played three seasons for Georgia State University under his father and head coach, Ron Hunter. After his junior season, he declared for the 2015 NBA draft.

Freshman season

Hunter recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds in his collegiate debut against No. 8

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

. He also scored 20 or more points 12 times during his freshman season, leading GSU in scoring 15 times. He earned Kyle Macy Freshman All-America honors,

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Rookie of the Year, All-CAA First-Team and CAA All-Rookie Team after becoming the most prolific freshman scorer in Georgia State University history. Hunter finished the year with a school-record 527 points (17 PPG) and was one of just three freshmen in the country to average at least 17.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.

Sophomore season

Hunter's trend of record setting continued into the rest of his career at GSU. Overall, he averaged 18.4 ppg, scoring 604 for the season and became the first Panther to make 100 3-pointers in a single season. That 3-pointer count was No. 16 in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

. Hunter was excellent from the free-throw line, setting the school record in single-season average by hitting 88.2 percent (No. 1 percentage in the Sun Belt and No. 17 in the NCAA that season). As a part of that effort, he also set a school-record 38 straight free throws made. On defense, Hunter finished second in the Sun Belt and 49th in the NCAA with his 63 steals. Many know Hunter from seeing highlights of his clutch buzzer-beater in the second round of the 2015 NCAA tournament, but hitting a shot like that was nothing new for him. In his sophomore year, Hunter scored a career-high 41 points against UTSA, making a school single-game-record 12 three-pointers. The 12 threes were also the most in the country during the year and set a new

record. In another game that year, he hit the game-winning shot with 11.1 seconds to play against Arkansas State. Another clutch shot came in a game in which Hunter scored 31 points including a crucial 3-pointer with seven seconds left at

UT Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas. The university was founded in 1895 and was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of Te ...

to send the game to overtime. Hunter was named Sun Belt Conference Basketball Player of the Year as well as the Sun Belt Conference Male Athlete of the Year. He was also named the Men's Georgia College Player of the Year by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.

Junior season

In his final season at GSU, Hunter averaged a career-high 19.7 points, scoring a school-record season total of 688 points (a school record he broke each season). He also averaged 4.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. In addition, he made 202 free-throws (No. 7 in the NCAA that year), second-most in school history, while swiping 75 steals, third-most in a single season in program history. The most noteworthy record he set was total career points. Midway through just his third season, Hunter overtook Rodney Hamilton's record of 1,515 points with a basket in front of a GSU home crowd against

UL Lafayette The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette, University of Louisiana, ULL, or UL) is a public research university in Lafayette, Louisiana. It has the largest enrollment within the nine-campus University of Louisiana System and the se ...

on January 24, 2015. Hunter finished the year with a career total of 1,819 points. The Panthers finished the 2014–15 season as the Sun Belt Conference regular season and tournament champions. With their Sun Belt Tournament championship win over

Georgia Southern Georgia Southern University (GS or Georgia Southern) is a public research university in the U.S. state of Georgia. The flagship campus is in Statesboro, and other locations include the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in Hin ...

, the Panthers received a bid to the NCAA tournament. In the round of 64, No. 14 seed Georgia State trailed the No. 3 seed Baylor by 12 points with just 2:53 to play. Hunter took over and scored 12 of the Panthers' final 13 points, including a 30-foot 3-pointer with 2.6 seconds remaining to secure their electrifying come-from-behind upset win, which caused his coach (and father) Ron to fall off his stool in jubilation. The moment was selected as No. 2 in the NCAA's top 10 moments of the tournament, was included in the "

One Shining Moment "One Shining Moment" is a song written by David Barrett that has become closely associated with the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. "One Shining Moment" is traditionally played at the end of CBS's and TBS's coverage of the champio ...

" montage following the championship game, and was one of three nominees for the 2015

Best Upset ESPY Award The Best Upset ESPY Award was conferred once each in 2004 in sports, 2004 and 2005 in sports, 2005 annually from 2007 in sports, 2007 until 2017 in sports, 2017 and again in 2019 in sports, 2019 to the team sport, team in a regular season or playoff ...

. Hunter was again named both Sun Belt Conference Basketball Player of the Year and the Sun Belt Conference Male Athlete of the Year. R.J. was also the only player from a school in Georgia to be named to the Naismith Trophy watch list that season.

College statistics

College records

* All-time Georgia State University leader in points (1,819) * All-time Georgia State University leader in free throws made (448), in free-throw percentage (.853), and in consecutive free throws made (38) * All-time Georgia State University leader in 3-pointers made (253) * Single-season Georgia State University leader in 3-pointers made (100, 2013–14) * Single-season Georgia State University leader free-throw percentage (.882, 2013–14) * Single-game Sun Belt Conference leader in 3-pointers made (12) * Single-game Sun Belt Conference leader in free-throw percentage (1.000 16–16, 2015)

Professional career

Boston Celtics (2015–2016)

On June 25, 2015, Hunter was selected with the 28th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft by the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

. On July 27, he signed his rookie-scale contract with the Celtics. After averaging just 2.8 points per game over his first eight NBA games, Hunter scored 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting off the bench against the Atlanta Hawks on November 24. During his rookie season, Hunter received multiple assignments to the Maine Red Claws, the Celtics' Development League affiliate. On October 24, 2016, Hunter was waived by the Celtics.

Chicago Bulls (2016)

On October 27, 2016, Hunter signed with the Chicago Bulls. He was waived by the Bulls on December 29, 2016, after appearing in three games. During his time with Chicago, he had multiple assignments to the

Windy City Bulls The Windy City Bulls are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and are affiliated with the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls play their home games at Now Arena, from Chicago. It became the thirte ...

of the

NBA Development League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

Long Island Nets (2017)

On January 6, 2017, Hunter was acquired by the Long Island Nets of the NBA G-League. Four days later, he made his debut for Long Island in a 120–112 loss to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, recording 22 points, three assists and two steals in 25 minutes off the bench.

Rio Grande Valley Vipers (2017–2018)

After failing to find a team to participate in training camp under the preseason, he would be assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the D-League on October 24, 2017. Hunter made his debut with the team on November 4.

Erie BayHawks (2018–2019)

On January 14, 2018, Hunter signed a two-way contract with the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

. On August 18, 2018, Hunter was waived by the Rockets. On September 7, 2018, Hunter signed with the Atlanta Hawks. On October 13, 2018, Hunter was waived by the Hawks. Hunter was added to the training camp roster of the Erie BayHawks. In his BayHawks debut, Hunter scored a game-high 34 points on 12-of-18 shooting in a win over the

Grand Rapids Drive The Grand Rapids Gold are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and are affiliated with the Denver Nuggets. The Gold play their home games at Van Andel Arena. They began play as the Anaheim ...

Return to Boston (2019)

On January 10, 2019, Hunter signed a two-way contract with the

Türk Telekom (2019–2020)

On June 27, 2019, Hunter signed with

Türk Telekom Türk Telekom is a state-owned Turkish telecommunications company. Türk Telekom was separated from Turkish Post (PTT) in 1995. Türk Telekom Group provides integrated telecommunication services for PSTN, GSM, and wide-band Internet. The Türk ...

of the Turkish Basketball Super League (BSL).

College Park Skyhawks (2020)

On February 7, 2020, Hunter signed with College Park Skyhawks of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

(formerly D-League) and an affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

. He missed a game against the Greensboro Swarm on February 28 with an illness.

Galatasaray (2020–2021)

On July 21, 2020, Hunter signed with Galatasaray of the Turkish BSL.

Sydney Kings (2021–2022)

On July 23, 2021, Hunter signed with the

of the Australian NBL for the 2021–22 season. On January 15, 2022, he was ruled out for the rest of the season after rupturing his left patellar tendon. He was replaced on the roster.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

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Playoffs

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Personal life

Hunter is the son of Ron Hunter and Amy Hunter, the youngest of two children. He and his older sister, Jasmine, are very close. Hunter's godfather is 15-year NBA veteran

Ron Harper Ronald Harper (born January 20, 1964) is an American former professional basketball player. He played for four teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) between 1986 and 2001 and is a five-time NBA champion. Early life Harper was born ...

References

External links

Georgia State Panthers bioBoston Celtics draft profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, R. J. 1993 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Australia American expatriate basketball people in Turkey American men's basketball players Basketball players from Ohio Boston Celtics draft picks Boston Celtics players Chicago Bulls players Erie BayHawks (2017–2019) players Galatasaray S.K. (men's basketball) players Georgia State Panthers men's basketball players Houston Rockets players Long Island Nets players Maine Red Claws players People from Oxford, Ohio Rio Grande Valley Vipers players Shooting guards Sydney Kings players Türk Telekom B.K. players Windy City Bulls players