Jon Elmore popped up as one of the most searched NBA names on Friday night, even though he never saw the floor in the first half of the Los Angeles Lakers’ Summer League opener in Las Vegas.
That’s the strange part of the story: the buzz was real, but the minutes weren’t. Elmore is on the Lakers’ Summer League roster, yet he didn’t get into the team’s first game in Vegas, which doesn’t exactly scream opportunity.
Still, fans know why he’s drawing attention. Elmore has become hard to ignore, partly because of his balding head and partly because his game has a way of sticking with people.
He’s 30 years old and will turn 31 on December 20. The 6-foot-3 guard was part of the 2019 NBA Draft class, though he wasn’t selected. Since then, his path has taken him all over the basketball map.
Elmore has played for Trieste, Orlandina, Ionikos Nikaias, Sopron, Siauliai, Sioux Falls Skyforce, Cleveland Charge, Stockton Kings, Manisa and Calgary Surge. He also won a 2025 G League championship.
During the 2025-26 season with Stockton, he averaged 13.8 points and 6.1 assists per game.
His college story is the kind that still gets told because it’s so unusual. A West Virginia kid, Elmore didn’t start at Marshall University. He began at VMI, where his father, Gay Elmore, had played, but he left school to help care for his struggling grandfather.
Later, he joined an intramural team at Marshall, got noticed, and earned his way onto the varsity roster. From there, he helped Marshall to its first NCAA Tournament win, scoring 27 points in an upset of Wichita State.
He also left his mark in Conference USA, setting the league’s all-time records in scoring and assists. On top of that, he became the first player in Division I history to score more than 2,500 points and hand out more than 750 assists.
Elmore had spent recent summers in The Basketball Tournament, but this year he’s in Lakers colors - even if the first chance to see him in Vegas never came.
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