The Golden State Warriors have a legacy of players who spend years and years with the franchise. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green have never played anywhere else; Klay Thompson and Kevon Looney just left after long tenures.
Some players, however, are only briefly in town. They spend a single season. Dennis Schroder just spent only two months before being flipped to another team. And five years ago, the Warriors signed a player for mere minutes before waiving him. His name was Eli Pemberton, and his basketball career is continuing as he has signed with a new team.
Hofstra University has produced some well-known alumni, from congressmen to film director Francis Ford Coppola to convicted felon Bernie Madoff. In basketball, however, they have two claims to fame, both of which have strong connections to the Golden State Warriors. Bob McKillop played ball at Hostra in the 1970s and went on to be the longtime head coach of Davidson College, where he famously oversaw Stephen Curry's college career; and former Warriors point guard Speedy Claxton, who is now the men's basketball head coach.
The Warriors briefly signed Eli Pemberton
Perhaps those connections drew the Warriors to the university's latest professional basketball prospect, 6'5" guard Eli Pemberton. The two-time All-CAA player led Hofstra to their first NCAA Tournament berth in two decades before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 tournament, and then went undrafted that fall in the NBA Draft.
The Warriors took notice and signed Pemberton to an Exhibit 10 deal, which allows an NBA team to add a player temporarily to their roster prior to the season, and then have exclusive rights to direct them to their G League team once he is waived. Such a deal adds a bit more money to the player's deal than a straight G League contract, so it works for both sides.
Most of the time, a player signs an Exhibit 10, spends time in Training Camp with a team, suits up for a few preseason contests, and then is waived ahead of the season. The Warriors wasted no such time with Pemberton, signing him and immediately waiving him. It went so fast that the official press release for his waiver still has the word "sign" in the headline.
In a shortened G League season due to the pandemic, Pemberton played in just 10 games, averaging a modest 6.4 points and 17.6 minutes per game. Santa Cruz kept him around, and he played another 81 games over the next two seasons, displaying a confident 3-point shot and some craft scoring the basketball. He never scaled the NBA cliff, but he had a solid run adjacent to the league.
In 2023, Pemberton took his talents overseas. Over the last two seasons he played for teams in Canada, Turkey, Israel, Belgium and Germany, completing some quirky bingo card of basketball destinations. Last year was perhaps his best international season, where he averaged 20 minutes and 9 points for Hapoel Haifa in Israel.
Pemberton has now landed with Górnik Wałbrzych of the Polish Basketball League. The "Miners" recently elevated into the top league in Poland and won the Polish Cup last season. Pemberton, still just 28 years old, has a chance to continue carving out a long professional career overseas.
To his credit, his time in Poland has already beat out his time on the Golden State Warriors.