Warriors' Pat Spencer shouldn't be in this NBA spotlight. He never let that stop him

New York Times

08-05-2025

Pat Spencer is here because of his grandfather.
He's on the Golden State Warriors, hoopin' in the 2025 playoffs, because George Robey was his best friend. They called him Pop. Spencer was a kid when they'd hang out in the basement. Playing ping-pong. Playing pool. Going through his Pop's boxes of baseball cards. He collected not for trading, but for history, as each card had a story — many from his own baseball career, which peaked in the New York Yankees minor-league system in the late 1950s and early '60s. Spencer heard them all.
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'I cherish those memories with him,' Spencer said. 'He'd be like, 'I pitched against that guy. I pitched against this guy coming up.' There were dudes from the 1940s, 50s, when he was pitching in farm leagues, trying to work their way up.'
It's a bit of a marvel Spencer is in this moment. His journey detoured him to the top of the mountain in college lacrosse before winding towards the NBA. To being teammates with Stephen Curry. To facing LeBron James on the stage Kobe and Shaq built. To inspiring his team by cooking the Houston Rockets in a playoff game and getting ejected for headbutting a much bigger Alperen Şengün.
You might see the 6-foot-3 White guy with a Camaro mustache and rec-league physique and think his presence is a fluke, that he's just happy to be here. Only to be surprised by his audacity, gasp at his skill.
Spencer is no ordinary 12th man. This is Mr. Robey's grandson.
'Pat is a damn good basketball player,' Warriors forward Draymond Green said. 'And I know he don't look like it. He don't just jump off the page at you when you see him in a basketball jersey. I don't think the No. 61 helps him. But he is one of the toughest guys on this team, and that includes myself.'
With Steph Curry (left hamstring strain) sidelined at least a week, Spencer will be elevated to backup point guard in the Warriors' Western Conference semifinals series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Coach Steve Kerr said Spencer is going to play. He usually does when one of the Warriors' ball-handlers misses action.
That won't change in the playoffs. The Warriors have been convinced by Spencer's conviction. Because knowing Spencer means understanding nothing about him is a fluke. He's built for this. He fought for this. His is a tale of athleticism, of pedigree, of competitive spirit, of a confidence that manifests visions. This soon-to-be 29-year-old lacrosse phenom is a testament to the power of hoop dreams.
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And what one can accomplish when they believe.
'My mom, for a long time until I got to where I'm at,' Spencer explained, 'she would always question my choice to pursue basketball. Not in a bad way. Just like, … 'You just have this whole thing (in lacrosse) lined up for you. Are you sure?' I'm living in this s— spot in Germany for three months. I'm away from my family. The journey's been a grind. She'd be like, 'Are you sure about this?' But I'm a believer that if you've got a passion, you've got to pursue it.'
Pat Spencer is here because of lacrosse.
He was a multi-sport athlete in his youth, on par with the Spencer family. They're all athletes. And a basketball family to the core. Cam Spencer, one of Pat's younger brothers, is a reserve for the Memphis Grizzlies after starring at UConn for a year. After years of battling, and the elder by four years bullying little bro on the court, the two faced off for the first time in the NBA. The Grizzlies' Spencer even matched up against the Warriors' Spencer, with mother Donna in the crowd.
'Honestly, it just felt like another competitive day, another competitive game,' Cam Spencer said after playing against big bro. 'No. 61, that's all I knew. That's who I was guarding. But I wouldn't be here today without him. Love him to death.'
Pat's other brother, Will Spencer, just finished his senior season at Division-III Hood College in Maryland. Their father, Bruce, played tennis and golf but wasn't pushed towards athletics in his youth. Donna played hoops all the way up until her sophomore year of high school.
'And broke my grandfather's heart,' Spencer said, 'and went to cheerleading.'
Spencer broke his heart, too. In the eighth grade, he made the choice to give up baseball. The schedule got to be too much. Something had to go.
'He was bummed initially,' he said of his grandfather's reaction to him quitting baseball. 'But then he became the biggest lacrosse junkie in the world.'
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Spencer's first love was basketball. It hooked him like a drug. But he was so good at lacrosse. Spencer was in high school when he committed to Loyola University in Maryland. The only other offer he got was from Fairfield. The basketball offers didn't come.
'I was 5-4, 120 pounds,' Spencer said. 'Still competitive as hell, right? I wanted to play one of them at a high level. Basketball just didn't look like a realistic avenue.'
But his height wasn't a problem in lacrosse.
'He was a brilliant, brilliant playmaker,' said Bob Shriver, Spencer's lacrosse coach at Boys' Latin School in Baltimore. 'He could set up anybody. He was often more intent on feeding somebody, giving them an assist, than he was scoring a goal by himself. And as a result, he really helped make everybody around them better players.'
Spencer's vision, knack for looking upfield or through a defense, and ability to see an open man on the back side of an offensive set made him a star. As an attacker, Spencer's role was similar to that of a point guard. He received the ball from the midfielders in transition and set up the offense. In his junior year, Boys' Latin was the No. 1 team in the country, winning every game they played.
He also had his growth spurt. Shot up to 6 feet. His athleticism turned up even more. Spencer was bouncy and quick. He could've switched back to basketball.
But he felt loyal to Loyola, which was close to home and gave him a chance before any other school would. During his freshman year, Spencer's star began to rise. Undersized and overlooked no longer, he was named a starter and became a Greyhounds legend. He was named the Freshman of the Year and became the first player in Patriot League history to win Offensive Player and Rookie of the Year honors outright. Loyola reached the Final Four.
'We saw the vision that he had,' said Charley Toomey, Spencer's college coach who has guided 53 All-Americans and 100 all-conference selections. 'He showed great promise as a freshman, but he showed NCAA promise, as being one of the best players in the country. He's a very cerebral player. He might be the most competitive player I've ever coached.'
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Still, Spencer considered switching to basketball again. He even called his high school coach to talk about it. He was a basketball junkie who'd grown to 6-foot-3 heading into his sophomore year. He was ready.
'I had a great (freshman) year, great friends, everything,' Spencer said. 'But that f—ing itch for basketball was killing me.'
But he made a commitment. For four years. Again, he chose to honor it. He scratched his hoop itch by playing pickup games with Loyola's hoop team and destroying the low-level talent in the intramural scene.
Draymond Green knows the feeling. In the Warriors' post-practice runs designed to give injured players scrimmage time, Spencer cooks all comers.
'He dropped me off so bad when I was coming back from my calf injury,' Green said. 'It was embarrassing. I went out there thinking I'm about to win games — I pride myself on winning those games. I got one win, but I couldn't like win. He was talking crazy to me and I couldn't do nothing about it. I was mad as hell. But that is Pat. And he brings that same energy every single day.'
Spencer finished his collegiate lacrosse career as Division I's all-time leader in assists (231) and second in points (380). He was first-team All-America for three straight years and an All-American all four years. He won the Patriot League MVP four times.
In 2019, Spencer was named a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award, college lacrosse's version of the Heisman. It was his third consecutive year being named a finalist.
His entire family gathered at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian for the annual announcement. The contingency including all four of his grandparents: Jack and Sylvia Spencer and George and Martha Robey.
'It's more of like a shared award with my teammates,' he said. 'All my best buddies came out. Whole family was there. It just signified all the sacrifice that everyone made for me. That moment was special.'
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It matters even more now that Pop got to see him win the Tewaaraton. He followed Spencer's lacrosse career as if it were baseball. He gave his best friend a seminal proud moment.
In May 2023, Martha Robey died of cancer. She was 81 years old. Spencer said Pop was dealing with a brain tumor while his wife of 62 years battled cancer, but none of his energy was on himself. Three months and nine days after his wife died, the retired firefighter and successful businessman, and ever-beloved patriarchal figure, died from cancer.
Pop was 83.
'I wouldn't trade looking up in the stands and seeing my grandfather,' Spencer said, 'for anything in the world.'
Pat Spencer is here because ball is life.
The Warriors were shorthanded after agreeing to trade Andrew Wiggins and Dennis Schröder at the trade deadline. The door was opened for Spencer to play more than just garbage minutes. He's being inserted into these playoffs in part because of the trustworthiness — and fearlessness — he showed in the 31 meaningful minutes in two games he played off the bench before Jimmy Butler arrived.
Midway through the third quarter of a tie game, Spencer posterized Utah center Walker Kessler with a right-hand dunk.
‼️ Pat Spencer ‼️
📺 @NBCSAuthentic pic.twitter.com/3TrcLjVJWO
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) February 6, 2025
One night later in Crypto.com Arena, the Warriors were trailing by 21 as he came downhill off a screen. LeBron James manned the paint alone. Spencer saw the King and went at him. He put his shoulder into LeBron's chest and dropped in the fade-away jumper with the foul.
A month later, he was a proud big bro at his locker watching Cam drill a corner 3 against Phoenix and then lock horns with Kevin Durant.
'Hell yeah,' Spencer said. 'We don't back down.'
Spencer is chill. His fashion, demeanor, is relaxed and inviting. He'll never be accused of talking too much, but he'll talk to anyone. So it's hard to spot the mean streak in him. But this is the same guy who at 21 gashed his forehead slamming it into a tennis racket because, in a familial game of doubles, his brother and grandfather picked on his grandmother's 'weak' backhand.
Just shy of two months after that, he was announcing himself in the playoffs. Spencer got some action in Game 5 in Houston as the listless regulars were getting blasted. He repeatedly attacked the Rockets defense and scored 11 points in 13 minutes.
Pat Spencer 11 Points, 1 Assist, 5/7 FG full highlight vs Rockets – Playoffs Game 2 pic.twitter.com/ZqhoNg8geA
— NBA Showtime (@NBAShowtime12) April 24, 2025
This is who he is, and who he's always been. The road to get here was so arduous, Spencer's been in attack mode since walking away from lacrosse in 2019.
He used his fifth year of eligibility to play basketball for Northwestern because it was a chance to play in the Big Ten. He called it the most frustrating year of his athletic career. Northwestern, in rebuilding mode, went 8-23.
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'It was the first time I've ever been a part of losing,' he said. 'I wish I was a better leader. I wish I'd put a little bit more work in. But it was right after that year that I realized I gotta lock the f— in.'
His jumper needed developing. Not just removing the hitch but being consistently shot-ready. His defense was also 'horrible' as he wasn't nearly quick enough, having put on too much weight. Two-a-days in Maryland for half a year helped that.
He thought he was preparing for the G League bubble but wound up not getting a spot. Instead, he went to play professionally in Germany. After being away from the game for so long, he couldn't afford to not play.
When he returned home, his parents flew him out to Las Vegas for Summer League. He went to network for an opportunity. Spencer walked up to Washington Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard and made his pitch. It earned an invite to a local tryout.
He made the Capital City Go-Go, the Wizards' G League team, but found himself trapped by two point guards. In the G, players on two-way contracts are prioritized. Local tryouts who make the team eat last.
But Spencer played well enough in practice, and when he did get minutes, to earn a spot on the Summer League team. After a few DNPs, he spoke up for himself.
'I went nuts on them,' Spencer said, a proud smile breaking across his face. 'I talked to a handful of coaches like, 'Respectfully, I didn't come out here for a f—ing vacation. … You've seen me the whole summer. What am I doing? They're like, 'It's just whatever the front office tells us.' I was like, 'F— that. Tell the front office I'm playing these last two games. Played Indiana. Smoked 'em. Played the Warriors the last game. Killed 'em. I got a call from (then Santa Cruz Warriors GM David) Fatoki like a day later. That's how I ended up here.'
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Making the NBA was never his end game. Chilling on the end of a bench isn't appeasing his dream. Spencer believes he can be a good player in the NBA. A regular reserve. A starter. He's got more to get out of his pedigree.
At 6-foot-3, and not an exceptionally explosive guard, his shooting must improve. He's gotta be money when he's open. That's of utmost priority in today's NBA.
But he's in his second season with the Warriors, and the growth is evident. Because anything that commands work, he'll get it done. Because anything that requires confidence and skill, h'll do fine. No stage is too big for his belief. No level of hoop beyond his passion.
Pat Spencer is here because he knows he belongs. If only Pop could see him now.
(Top photo of Pat Spencer: Logan Riely / NBAE via Getty Images)