Former Kansas, NBA player Ben McLemore sentenced to 100 months in prison

Gary Bedore, The Kansas City Star on Jul 9, 2025

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Former University of Kansas and NBA basketball player Ben McLemore was sentenced to more than eight years in an Oregon state prison on Wednesday, a week after a jury found him guilty of raping a 21-year-old woman at a house party in October 2021.

According to ESPN.com, the 32-year-old McLemore wore Clackamas County Jail inmate clothing in court Wednesday while a judge sentenced him to 100 months in prison. McLemore did not address the court at the sentencing hearing.

A week ago, a jury found McLemore guilty of one charge of first-degree rape, one charge of first-degree unlawful sexual penetration and one count of second-degree sexual abuse. He was found not guilty of another count of second-degree sexual abuse.

He pled not guilty to all four counts. The charges stemmed from a report of sexual assault in Lake Oswego, Ore., on Oct. 3, 2021 at the home of Robert Covington, one of McLemore’s teammates on the Portland Trail Blazers. McLemore, identified as a suspect, was arrested in April 2024.

Clackamas County first assistant district attorney Scott Healy provided the following statement to ESPN.com:

“Many people are often afraid to report this type of conduct for a number of reasons. Hopefully the victim’s strength and courage in this case will give others the fortitude to come forward in circumstances where sexual assault has occurred. The sentence the defendant received today should serve as a reminder that this type of conduct will not be tolerated in our community, and that the Clackamas County DA’s Office will always work hard to hold offenders accountable and provide justice to victims.”

McLemore’s attorney, Kristen Winemiller — who as part of McLemore’s legal team disputed the victim’s account of the incident that led to charges — told ESPN.com on Wednesday: “We hope the Oregon Legislature will adopt a ‘second look’ process that would evaluate whether he should serve the entire 100-month sentence or whether, beyond the short alcohol-influenced encounter that led to this conviction, he is a considerate and humble person who has lived an honorable, community-focused life.”

On Wednesday, the victim appeared via video and read a statement, as reported by ESPN.com’s Baxter Holmes.

The statement read: “This has been the longest almost four years of my life. I never imagined that reporting this back in 2021 would lead to such an incredibly difficult and long journey. These last few years have often felt like a weight that I’ve had to drag behind me, a constant reminder of the trauma that I haven’t been able to fully work through because there was no ending in sight. I now understand, on a deep level, why so many victims hesitate or never report what happened to them.”