Born and raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, I have always been relentless in the pursuit of my passion for basketball. As a freshman, I played for the Murry Bergtraum High School Varsity basketball team, only to get cut later on in the season. However, I did not allow this setback to crush my dreams as I kept working on my game to eventually earn a spot playing Division III basketball at Hunter College. Throughout college, I leveraged my basketball accolades and extroverted personality to expand my basketball network and made a name for myself in the NYC streetball community. Realizing that Asian-American ballers are often overlooked and rarely get a chance to shine, I started “Showcase NYC”, which is a semi-professional basketball league hosted in the heart of Chinatown at Columbus Park. I envisioned this league as an opportunity to give the community a chance to play against and watch some of NYC’s top streetball talent. In addition to Showcase, I currently work at Apex for Youth, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to underserved, low-income Asian and immigrant youth in NYC. At Apex, Ian heads up their basketball operation, which encompasses weekly basketball programs across 6 schools and the “We Run As One” summer league for middle schoolers which runs every July-August. Whether it’s in my personal or professional pursuits, basketball and sports will always be a passion I pursue throughout his career.