The former lacrosse player is now Northwestern’s only full-time NBA player.

Pat Spencer’s incredible NBA journey has finally paid off. On Tuesday, the former Northwestern guard was rewarded with his first full-time NBA contract.

The Stein Line’s Jake Fischer was the first to report the news, with the Golden State Warriors announcing they had converted Spencer’s two-way contract to a standard NBA contract shortly after.

Spencer has had a unique road to the NBA. In college, Spencer was a lacrosse player at Loyola University from 2016 to 2019. He won the Tewaaraton Award in 2019, given to the best college lacrosse player, and was a four-time All-American.

Spencer then entered the transfer portal as a graduate student to play basketball, which he hadn’t played competitively since high school. Nonetheless, he found a home at a Big Ten program and ended up at Northwestern.

With the Wildcats in 2019-20, Spencer started 29 of 31 games and was second on the team in scoring, putting up 10.4 points per game. Spencer led Northwestern with 122 assists and 24 steals.

Spencer turned pro by competing with Germany’s Hamburg Towers in 2021. His play in Europe earned him a contract with the Capital City Go-Go, the G League affiliate of the Washington Wizards.

After spending one season with the Go-Go, Spencer signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Golden State Warriors in 2022. Spencer played 38 games with the G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors between 2022 and 2024, and on February 22, 2024, the Warriors inked him to a two-way deal to travel between their NBA and G League rosters.

Spencer made his debut on February 25, 2024 and played in six games for the Warriors last season, averaging 4.3 minutes per game.

In the 2024-25 season, Spencer’s role has increased in Golden State while on the same two-way contract. The 28-year-old guard has appeared in 28 games this year, playing seven minutes per outing while posting averages of 2.8 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists in limited action.

The new deal makes Spencer the only former Northwestern Wildcat to be signed to a full-time NBA contract. Both Milwaukee’s Pete Nance and New York’s Boo Buie are on two-way deals, while Oklahoma City’s Miller Kopp is on an Exhibit 10 contract in the G League.

Spencer’s story is one of perseverance and belief in himself, and it’s certainly not over yet. As the Warriors make a late-season playoff push, Spencer will have every opportunity possible to prove that he can be a part of the team’s postseason rotation.