After Pat Spencer ’19, former Loyola lacrosse attackman, won Patriot League’s Offensive Player of the Year in all four years of his undergraduate, along with the Tewaaraton Award in his senior year, many believed he would pursue a career in professional lacrosse.
Not many thought he would pursue another sport professionally. Yet, that is exactly what he did.
Now, Spencer is playing in the National Basketball Association for one of the most valuable organizations in all sports, the Golden State Warriors. On Friday, Feb. 14, Spencer will be the first Greyhound alum to participate in NBA All-Star Weekend as a player.
The 28-year-old Maryland native will be playing in the Rising Stars game, which showcases the NBA’s new and upcoming stars.
This year’s format consists of four teams with seven players on each who will compete in a single elimination bracket. One of these teams consists of the NBA G League’s best players, which is Spencer’s team. The NBA G League is the NBA’s official minor league that prepares players, coaches, officials, trainers, and front-office staff for the NBA.
Spencer played more in the G League from 2021 to 2024, but this season, he has predominately played in the NBA. He is one of three Loyola Greyhound alumni currently playing in the league. His younger brother, Cam Spencer ’23, and Santi Aldama are both members of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Another Greyhound alum who is part of the NBA is Michael Malone ’94, head coach of the Denver Nuggets, who recently led his team to an NBA title in 2023. Malone coached in the NBA All-Star Game in both 2019 and 2023.
Pat Spencer seems to have found a home in Golden State, but he had his own journey to get to this point.
Spencer attended Loyola from 2015 to 2019 and was an attackman on the men’s lacrosse team. With Spencer at the forefront, the Greyhounds made a Final Four appearance in the NCAA Lacrosse Championships in just his first season. The team continued to earn their spot in these championships in the following years, making a first-round appearance in 2017 and two quarterfinals appearances in 2018 and 2019.
Spencer was the only first-year to earn Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year when he did such in 2016, according to the Patriot League site. He won Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year in all four years at Loyola.
“He’s a really strong guy and he’d just push his way to the goal, but he’s also athletic enough to split, dodge, and step away and reengage and run by you with speed. I mean, he just can do it and he’s incredibly two-handed. And you see that in his basketball game,” men’s lacrosse coach Matt Dwan ‘95 said.
Spencer is the NCAA men’s lacrosse all-time leader in career assists and fourth in career points. His lacrosse resume also includes the Tewaaraton Award and the Lt. Raymond Enners Award, which both recognize the most outstanding American college lacrosse player in that season. These were each given to Spencer in his senior year in 2019.
He has also earned three Inside Lacrosse and USILA first-team All-American accolades, from 2017 to 2019, and a USILA second-team All-American accolade in 2016. In his years at Loyola, Spencer exemplified strong work ethic, professionalism, and a competitive spirit.
“He just was such a competitor…he just kind of had that type of attitude that when he took the field, he wanted to win at everything he did…hardworking kid and super smart. Definitely somebody that [had] the work ethic, the hard work, the dedication – just a winner,” Dwan said.
“He was a great leader…the one thing I tell you as a goalie, you love to have the best player in the country on your team when it comes to game day. I was okay with going at it at practice with him [and] when it came down to Saturdays, we were on the same team,” former Loyola lacrosse goalkeeper Jacob Stover ’19 said.
Stover talked about Spencer’s upstanding character that he continues to hold today.
“Most genuine guy ever. If he didn’t know you, he’d still be very open, very genuine, outgoing, and just an overall great young man. [He is] funny, down to earth, loves his family, just a normal dude. He doesn’t gloat, didn’t have an ego, nothing – humble, hungry, ready to attack every opportunity [he] could get,” Stover said.
When his undergraduate years were completed, he had cemented himself as one of the greatest lacrosse players in those four years. In spite of this, his dreams for the future were not of lacrosse, but of basketball. When he was drafted with the first pick in the Premier Lacrosse League Draft, he opted not to play and to instead continue with his schooling.
“We knew that Pat was a great basketball player. He was very honest and told Coach Toomey that one of his passions was basketball and that his goal was to attempt to play at a high level. He was great, though, understanding that he didn’t want to be a distraction on our team for our spring season. He always made sure to do things on his own time,” Dwan said.
Dwan stated how many players do workouts or summer lacrosse in the offseason, playing in competitive tournaments or leagues, but that Spencer’s summers consisted of basketball. He played in different pickup and organized leagues and did not play lacrosse.
In 2019, after four years at Loyola, he entered his name in the transfer portal and went to Northwestern for his graduate year, where he would play his first and only year of Division I basketball. He averaged 10.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game playing guard. These stats cracked open the door for a chance at professional basketball.
Spencer’s first go-around as a professional was in 2021, playing five games on the Hamburg Towers in the Basketball Bundesliga. Afterwards, he was invited to the Washington Wizards G League training camp. Spencer earned a spot on their roster and played one season with the Wizards G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go, during 2021-2022.
Following his stint in the nation’s capital, Spencer joined the G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors for four regular season games in 2022-2023, then played 34 regular season games for them in 2023-2024.
On Feb. 22, 2024, he signed a two-way contract with the Golden State Warriors, Santa Cruz’s NBA affiliate. This two-way contract allows Spencer to play in either league as designated by the team.
In 2024-25 though, he has played significantly more in the NBA, with only two regular-season games in the G League to his 22 and counting with Golden State.
On Jan. 10, 2025, Spencer scored a career high 17 points against the Indiana Pacers, shooting seven for 12 on field goals. A few weeks later, on Feb. 6, he scored 13 points against the Lakers in Los Angeles, shooting six for nine on field goals.
This year’s All-Star Weekend is being held at Chase Center in San Francisco, where the Warriors play their home games, so Spencer will have some home crowd support. Spencer’s Rising Stars team consists of himself and six other G League players, and the team’s honorary coach is former Warriors guard Jeremy Lin.
The NBA’s 2025 Castrol Rising Stars is on Friday, Feb. 14 at 9 p.m. and Loyola alum Pat Spencer and the league’s other young stars will compete during All-Star Weekend. If Spencer’s team is the winning team on Friday, he will play in the NBA All-Star Game mini tournament against the NBA All-Stars on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m.
