Ben McLemore, a former American professional basketball player, has a net worth of $5 million, accumulated from his NBA career and overseas playing experience. His career was cut short when he was sentenced to eight years in prison for rape in 2025.
Ben McLemore is a former American professional basketball player with an estimated net worth of $5 million. Between 2013 and 2022, McLemore played for five different NBA teams, and after that, he spent a few years playing overseas in various countries, including China, Greece, Spain, and Turkey, before his career ended in 2025 due to a prison sentence. Born on February 11, 1993, in St. Louis, Missouri, Ben McLemore III was raised by his mother, Sonya Reid, along with his five siblings. McLemore attended Wellston High School for three years before it closed in 2010, and subsequently attended Oak Hill Academy in Virginia and Christian Life Center Academy in Texas. As a high school basketball player, McLemore was a star and was rated a four-star recruit by Rivals.com. Although he committed to the University of Kansas for college, McLemore was deemed ineligible to play in the NCAA due to attending multiple high schools, but was later allowed to practice with the Kansas Jayhawks and eventually played as a redshirt freshman. In his sole collegiate season, McLemore averaged 15.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, and after declaring for the 2013 NBA draft, his AAU coach, Darius Cobb, was accused of receiving thousands of dollars in illegal benefits from NBA agent Rodney Blackstock. The Sacramento Kings chose McLemore seventh overall in the 2013 NBA draft, and he played all 82 games of the regular season, averaging 8.8 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. McLemore played again in the NBA Summer League in 2014 and helped the Kings win the championship, and in the regular season, he started all 82 games, averaging a career-best 12.1 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. Due to injury, McLemore's performance declined in the 2015-16 season, averaging 7.8 points and 2.2 rebounds per game in 68 games, and the following season, he played in just 61 games, averaging 8.1 points and 2.1 rebounds per game. After spending the 2017-18 season in Memphis, McLemore returned to the Kings for the 2018-19 season but played in only 19 games before being waived. McLemore played for the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2017-18 season, averaging 7.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in 56 games and 17 starts. In the summer of 2019, McLemore signed with the Houston Rockets and scored a season-high 28 points in a win over the Toronto Raptors, finishing the regular season with averages of 10.1 points and 2.2 rebounds in 71 games. McLemore made his postseason debut with the Rockets, reaching the Conference semifinals against the Los Angeles Lakers, but the Lakers ultimately won. McLemore continued playing for the Rockets in the 2020-21 season but was waived after 32 games, and three days later, he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, playing 21 regular-season games and four in the playoffs. That summer, McLemore signed with the Portland Trail Blazers, playing 64 games with the team in the 2021-22 season and averaging 10.2 points per game. In early 2023, McLemore signed a one-year contract with the Chinese Basketball Association team Shandong Hi-Speed Kirin, and in the summer, he signed with the Greek club AEK Athens, but his contract was terminated by the end of the year. McLemore then played for the Spanish Liga ACB club Río Breogán from 2023 to 2024 and subsequently for the Turkish club Yukatel Merkezefendi from 2024 to 2025. Over the course of his professional basketball career, McLemore earned more than $21 million in NBA salary, with his first contract being a four-year rookie contract worth $13.1 million with the Sacramento Kings. In 2017, he joined the Memphis Grizzlies on a two-year, $10.7 million deal, though he played only one season before being traded back to the Kings, and later stints with the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, and Portland Trail Blazers came on short-term contracts. In the spring of 2024, McLemore was arrested in Oregon on charges of rape, unlawful sexual penetration, and sexual abuse, which occurred at a party in 2021 at the Lake Oswego home of his fellow Trail Blazers teammate Robert Covington. In the summer of 2025, McLemore was found guilty of all but one of his counts and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Previously married, McLemore has a child named Teagan.