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Who is Ha Seung-jin? A look at the South Korean basketball player-turned-YouTube streamer's life and career

A week after turning professional streamer, Ha Seung-jin, the first South Korean to ever play in the NBA, has already found himself in controversy

Former basketball player Ha Seung-jin and K-pop star Kim Hee-chul found themselves mired in controversy when the two were seen together on a live stream talking about K-pop star and TWICE member Nayeon who also happens to be Hee-chul's girlfriend.

During the stream, Seung-jin apologized to fans of Nayeon for his previous comments where he said he looks like Nayeon and how there are so many memes about it. People watching the stream somehow assumed that Hee-chul and the basketball star were making fun of her when in reality they did not do it.

While fans are aware of who Hee-chul and Nayeon are, they're unclear about who Ha Seung-jin is, so let's break it down.

Who is Ha Seung-jin?

Ha Seung-jin is the first South Korean to ever play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is 7 feet and 3 inches tall making him one of the tallest players in the NBA. Before joining the NBA, he played high school basketball in South Korea.

Seung-jin moved to Los Angeles in 2004 to prepare for the NBA Draft. He played for the Portland Reign of the American Basketball Association (ABA), and later joined the Portland Trail Blazers in the middle of the 2004-05 season. Seung-jin scored his career-high 13 points against the Los Angeles Lakers and helped the Trail Blazers win the game. During the 2005-06 season, Seung-jin was assigned to the NBA D-League's Fort Worth Flyers. He played five games but didn't make a lasting impact. Later, Seung-jin was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks. In 2006, he was waived by the Bucks and acquired by the Anaheim Arsenal of the NBA Development League.

He later played professional basketball in South Korea as a member of the team KCC Jeonju which won the Korean Basketball League (KBL) championships 2009 and 2011. Seung-jin has represented South Korea's Basketball team in the FIBA Asia Championship in the years 2009 and 2011 and in the 2010 Asian Games.

Outside basketball, Seung-jin's older sister, Ha Eun-Joo, who has gigantism, is also a professional basketball player. She was signed by Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) but was later waived due to a conflicting contract. She later signed with Incheon Shinhan Bank S-Birds of the Women's Korean Basketball League (WKBL).

Seung-jin issues an apology

Seung-jin tried to simmer down the flared tempers and even issued an apology. A Twitter user posted the apology online and wrote, "UPDATE: Streamer Ha Seungjin just wrote an apology post abt what's currently happening in his youtube community."

The apology came after the vicious trolling both Seung-jin and Hee-chul received as the user pointed out, "Adding more info: Heechul actually got a lot of hate comments because of the false info spreaded by antis on dc gallery Ha seungjin is aware abt the situation so he personally contacted heechul and apologized to him."