Ronald Jordan Hunter (born October 24, 1993) is an American former 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 (appro ...

player and current assistant coach for the Tulane Green Wave. He played college basketball for the Georgia State Panthers under the direction of his father and Georgia State head coach, Ron Hunter, being named twice Sun Belt Player of the Year as well as the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that has been affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football confe ...

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 List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, 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 Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is al ...

under his father and head coach, Ron Hunter. After his junior season, he declared for the

2015 NBA draft The 2015 NBA draft was held on June 25, 2015, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. It was televised nationally in the U.S. by ESPN. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eli ...

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 Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

. 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, CAA 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 College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

. 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 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 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, 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" montage following the championship game, and was one of three nominees for the 2015 Best Upset ESPY Award. 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

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 Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...

. 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 The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Easte ...

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 The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

. 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 a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of the 2024–25 season, ...

Long Island Nets (2017)

On January 6, 2017, Hunter was acquired by the

Long Island Nets The Long Island Nets are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Uniondale, New York, and are affiliated with the Brooklyn Nets. The team plays its home games at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County ...

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 The Noblesville Boom are an American professional basketball team based in Noblesville, Indiana that competes in the NBA G League. The Boom are the affiliate team of the NBA's Indiana Pacers and, since 2025, they have played their home games at ...

, 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 A two-way contract is a professional sports contract that stipulates that an athlete's salary is dependent upon the league in which the athlete is assigned to play. This is opposed to a one-way contract that would pay the same salary regardless o ...

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 of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...

. On August 18, 2018, Hunter was waived by the Rockets. On September 7, 2018, Hunter signed with the

. 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.

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 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 a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the Minor league#Basketball, developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of ...

(formerly D-League) and an affiliate of the

of the

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

. 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

Sydney Kings The Sydney Kings are an Australian men's professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL). The team is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and play their home games at Qudos Ba ...

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.

Greensboro Swarm (2023–2024)

On September 29, 2023, Hunter signed with the

Charlotte Hornets The Charlotte Hornets are an American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Hornets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team ...

, but was waived on October 21, prior to the start of the 2023–24 season. Eight days later, he signed with the Greensboro Swarm. On October 15, 2024, Hunter retired from professional basketball.

Coaching Career

Tulane (2024–present)

In October 2024, Hunter joined his father on the coaching staff at Tulane as a volunteer assistant coach.

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.

References

External links

Georgia State Panthers bioBoston Celtics draft profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, R. J. 1993 births Living people 21st-century American sportsmen American expatriate basketball people in Australia American expatriate basketball people in Turkey American men's basketball players 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 Greensboro Swarm players Houston Rockets players Long Island Nets players Maine Red Claws players People from Oxford, Ohio Pike High School alumni Rio Grande Valley Vipers players Shooting guards Basketball players from Butler County, Ohio Sydney Kings players Türk Telekom B.K. players Windy City Bulls players