A former member of the Houston Rockets has been handed a multi-year prison sentence after being found guilty of rape.
Ben McLemore, who played for the Rockets from 2019 until 2021, was found guilty on one count of first-degree rape, one count of first-degree unlawful sexual penetration and one count of second-degree sexual abuse. The guilty verdict came in on June 3.
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On Wednesday, McLemore, 32, was sentenced to 100 months—or eight years and four months—behind bars.
NEWS: A judge sentenced Ben McLemore to more than eight years in state prison Wednesday after the former NBA guard was found guilty for raping and sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman at a Lake Oswego house party in 2021: https://t.co/aSFgmk8M1N https://t.co/BeMqXSyFLl
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) July 9, 2025
According to reporting from ESPN Senior NBA Writer Baxter Holmes, the charges stemmed from an incident at a house party in Lake Oswego, Oregon in Oct. 2021. The party was at the home of Patrick Covington, another former Rocket who was McLemore’s teammate on the Portland Trail Blazers at the time.
Prosecutors said the victim, who was 21 at the time, passed out on a living room couch in the home after drinking heavily. She partially regained consciousness later as McLemore was assaulting her.
After starring at the University of Kansas, McLemore played in the NBA for nine seasons, before playing basketball overseas in 2023. He was playing in Spain when he was arrested on a felony warrant related to the charges in April of 2024.
