| Walt Lemon Jr. | |
| Height Ft: | 6 |
| Height In: | 2 |
| Weight Lb: | 180 |
| League: | Qatari Basketball League |
| Team: | Al-Arabi |
| Position: | Point guard |
| Nationality: | American |
| Birth Date: | 1992 7, mf=yes |
| Birth Place: | Chicago, Illinois |
| High School: | Julian (Chicago, Illinois) |
| College: | Bradley (2010–2014) |
| Draft Year: | 2014 |
| Career Start: | 2014 |
| Years1: | 2014 |
| Team1: | EGIS Körmend |
| Years2: | 2015 |
| Team2: | Crailsheim Merlins |
| Years3: | 2015–2016 |
| Team3: | Fort Wayne Mad Ants |
| Years4: | 2016–2017 |
| Team4: | Istanbulspor Beylikduzu |
| Years5: | 2017 |
| Team5: | Rethymno Cretan Kings |
| Years6: | 2017–2018 |
| Team6: | Fort Wayne Mad Ants |
| Team7: | New Orleans Pelicans |
| Years8: | 2018 |
| Team8: | Maine Red Claws |
| Years9: | 2018–2019 |
| Team9: | Windy City Bulls |
| Team10: | Chicago Bulls |
| Years11: | 2019–2020 |
| Team11: | Fort Wayne Mad Ants |
| Years12: | 2020–2021 |
| Team12: | Hapoel Tel Aviv |
| Years13: | 2021 |
| Team13: | Ezzahra Sports |
| Years14: | 2021–2022 |
| Team14: | Fort Wayne Mad Ants |
| Years15: | 2022–2023 |
| Team15: | Club Africain |
| Years16: | 2023-2024 |
| Team16: | Mineros de Zacatecas |
| Highlights: |
|
| Bbr: | lemonwa01 |
| Years17: | 2024–present |
| Team17: | Al-Arabi |
Walter Lemon Jr. (born July 26, 1992) is an American professional basketball player who last played for Mineros de Zacatecas of Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional (LNBP). He played college basketball for four years with the Bradley Braves.[1]
Lemon attended Julian High School where he averaged 19 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals per game as a senior, earning him a third-team 3A all-state pick by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association and a second-team All-Chicago Public League.[2] [3] [4]
After graduating, Lemon went to Bradley where he averaged 18 points and 3 rebounds as a senior. When he graduated he ranked among Bradley's all-time top 10 in career points (1721, 7th), assists (367, 10th) and steals (222, 3rd) and had several awards, including the MVC Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2014, Bradley's first player ever to win the award.
After going undrafted in the 2014 NBA draft, Lemon joined the Golden State Warriors for the 2015 NBA Summer League. On September 10, 2014, he signed with Hungarian team EGIS Körmend for the 2014–15 season.[5] On December 23, 2014, he parted ways with the club after appearing in 12 league games.[6]
On February 6, 2015, he signed with the Crailsheim Merlins of Germany for the rest of the season.[7] In eight games for the Merlins, he averaged 6.4 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.
On October 31, 2015, Lemon was selected by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the second round of the 2015 NBA Development League Draft.[8]
On July 15, 2016, Lemon signed with İstanbulspor Beylikdüzü of the TBL.[9]
On February 20, 2017, Lemon Jr. signed with the Greek team Rethymno Cretan Kings.[10]
On November 2, 2017, Lemon was included in the opening night roster for Fort Wayne Mad Ants.[11] Lemon was later named G League Player of the Month for November.[12]
On February 21, 2018, the New Orleans Pelicans signed Lemon to a 10-day contract.[13] He made his NBA debut two days later in a 124–123 overtime win over the Miami Heat, playing in four minutes that night. Lemon signed his second 10-day contract on March 4. After the expiration of his second 10-day contract, Lemon returned to Fort Wayne.[14]
On July 25, Lemon signed a two-way contract with the Boston Celtics. During this time, he was expected to split his playing time between the Celtics and their NBA G League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws. On November 29, 2018, Lemon was waived by the Celtics without appearing in a game for the parent club.[15]
On December 8, 2018, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants announced that they had acquired the right of Alex Hamilton and a first round pick in the 2019 NBA G League draft from the Windy City Bulls in exchange for the right to Lemon.[16]
On January 16, 2019, Lemon was suspended for one game without pay and fined for directing inappropriate language toward a game official.[17]
On March 29, 2019, the Chicago Bulls announced that they had signed Lemon.[18] On March 30, 2019, Lemon made his debut with the Bulls, scoring 19 points with 6 assists and four steals. In his third game in a Chicago Bulls uniform, in a game against the Wizards in Washington, D.C., on April 3, 2019, Lemon led all players with 24 points in a very efficient 11 of 16 from the floor while leading all players with eight assists. In the final minute of the game, Lemon hit one go ahead basket and afterwards a go-ahead free throw. On the other end of the floor Lemon played hard, tenacious defense to secure the victory for the Bulls, 115–114.
On October 10, 2019, the Indiana Pacers announced that they had signed Lemon.[19] This comes after the release of 2x Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year JaKeenan Gant. Terms of the contract weren't released.[20] On October 16, 2019, Lemon was waived by the Indiana Pacers.[21] On October 26, 2019, Lemon was included in the training camp roster for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.[22] On November 6, 2019, Lemon was included in the opening night roster of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.[23] He averaged 20.3 points, 6.8 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game.[24]
On August 15, 2020, Lemon signed with Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli Premier League.[25] He averaged 10.6 points, 4.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
On September 11, 2021, Lemon signed with Ezzahra Sports of the Championnat National A.[26]
On December 30, 2021, Lemon signed with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA G League,[27] averaging 12.3 points and 6.2 assists in 32 games.[28]
On May 2, 2022, Lemon signed with the Ottawa BlackJacks of the CEBL.
Lemon signed with Club Africain in Tunisia in 2022.
In December 2023, Lemon signed with Al-Arabi of the Qatari Basketball League (QBL) for the remainder of the 2023–24 season in Qatar.[29] He guided Al-Arabi to their third Qatari Cup. He scored a game-high 24 points in the final against Al Ahli Doha.[30]
|-| style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans| 5 || 0 || 7.0 || .438 || 1.000 || .667 || .4 || 1.0 || .0 || .2 || 3.4|-| style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Chicago| 6 || 3 || 27.8 || .437 || .400 || .727 || 4.5 || 5.0 || 1.8 || .2 || 14.3|- class="sortbottom"| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career| 11 || 3 || 18.4 || .437 || .500 || .714 || 2.6 || 3.2 || 1.0 || .2 || 9.4
|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2010–11| style="text-align:left;"| Bradley| 31 || 5 || 20.0 || .419 || .324 || .660 || 2.4 || .9 || .9 || .4 || 6.4|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2011–12| style="text-align:left;"| Bradley| 32 || 25 || 30.7 || .471 || .345 || .667 || 3.1 || 2.5 || 1.3 || .5 || 12.6|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2012–13| style="text-align:left;"| Bradley| 35 || 34 || 34.3 || .451 || .330 || .761 || 4.2 || 3.8 || 2.1 || .4 || 15.6|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2013–14| style="text-align:left;"| Bradley| 32 || 31 || 35.5 || .424 || .290 || .746 || 3.1 || 3.9 || 2.4 || .1 || 18.0|- class="sortbottom"| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career| 130 || 95 || 30.3 || .442 || .321 || .719 || 3.2 || 2.8 || 1.7 || .3 || 13.2
He is the son of Walter Sr. and Katrina Lemon and is one of three siblings. Earning a spot on the Bradley Athletic Director's Honor Roll three times, Lemon earned his bachelor's degree in psychology. Growing up in Chicago, he always wanted to be like Derrick Rose and it shows in his game with flashy passes and hard cuts to the hoop.