TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors have signed a movie star to their team! Juan Alberto Hernangómez Geuer, better known as Juancho Hernangómez, will be number 41 with the Raptors after signing a one-year contract as the team’s new power forward on July 27th.
If you’ve seen the movie Hustle, you may recognize Hernangómez. On top of being a basketball player, Juancho is also an actor who had his film debut this year, starring alongside Adam Sandler in the Netflix film which was co-produced by Sandler and LeBron James.
The film sees Sandler play a talent scout for the Philadelphia 76ers who discovers Hernangómez’s character Bo Cruz, a young construction worker who has some serious basketball potential.
While his acting career is fairly fresh, he has a lot of experience on the court. Hernangómez is from Madrid, Spain, and started playing Basketball in 2007. The power forward was a member of several competitive teams in his youth. In 2013, he was a member of Spain’s national under-18 basketball team where he played at the FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. Hernangómez then joined the Spanish under-20 team for the next two years, playing at the FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship.
After helping the senior Spanish national team train for the 2015 Eurobasket, Hernangomez made his senior Spain national team major tournament debut at the 2017 EuroBasket. In 2018 he earned a spot on Spain’s national team’s roster ahead of the first stage of qualifiers for the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
Hernangómez began playing basketball professionally in 2012 when he signed with the Spanish basketball team CB Estudiantes. In 2016, the player was called up to the NBA when he was drafted by the Denver Nuggets as their 15th overall pick.
In 2020, Hernangómez was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The following year he was traded to the Boston Celtics, then to the San Antonio Spurs and the Utah Jazz all within a short period of time.
Fun fact, Juancho isn’t the only basketball player in his family! Hernangómez has an older brother named Willy who currently plays for the New Orleans Pelicans. Both his mother and father have played professionally as well.
