The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Beachwood grad lands position in video for Pelicans
Jon Tramer knew where he wanted to attend college when he was 6.
Tramer, a native of Beachwood, attended a basketball camp at Penn State with his father 18 years ago. Players and student-managers made up the staff of camp counselors.
Before Tramer left State College, Pa., he told his dad he either was going to play for the Nittany Lions or “be one of them” as he pointed toward the managers.
When Tramer graduated from Beachwood in 2013, he achieved a lifelong goal. He only applied to Penn State then served as a student-manager in the basketball program for four years.
Two years after his college graduation, Tramer’s begun the next chapter in his basketball saga. He was hired by the New Orleans Pelicans as a video coordinator intern in June.
“It’s only been like a month or so since I got here and it’s still exciting and unbelievable,” Tramer said. “I was just in Vegas for 2 ½ weeks with the team and sitting in meetings with the team, going to practice and going to the games, I’m still kind of in shock.” Tramer played under coach Jason Pecjak at Beachwood, where he helped lead the Bison to a regional semifinal appearance during his senior year. Tramer’s teammates included eventual Furman point guard John Davis III, Baldwin Wallace forward Jordan Richardson and Hiram guard Sterling Sanders.
Prior to his junior year, Tramer represented the United States in the 2011 European Maccabi Games in Vienna, Austria. Tramer and his fellow countrymen spent a week in New York to train before they traveled overseas for two weeks. The United States team returned home with a gold meal after a 72-69 victory over Brazil in the championship game.
Tramer studied entrepreneurship at Penn State. During his junior and senior years, he was the head manager and a video coordinator. When the Nittany Lions celebrated senior night in 2017, managers were the only seniors recognized since the team’s roster had no senior players.
“They treated us so well there, it was really unbelievable,” Tramer said. “All the way up until calling them up and saying I got the opportunity with the Pelicans. They said, ‘anything you need, let us know.’”
Tramer returned to the Cleveland area after graduation and worked various sales jobs before his NBA opportunity materialized. A connection with David Griffin opened a door for Tramer when the Pelicans hired the Cavaliers’ former general manager as their executive vice president of basketball operations. References from Penn State coach Pat Chambers, Villanova director of basketball operations Dwayne Anderson and George Washington assistant Ryan Devlin helped solidify Tramer’s candidacy.
Soon after the Pelicans selected Zion Williamson with the first pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Tramer traveled to Las Vegas for his first experience working in an NBA film room.
Tramer wasn’t the only Northeast Ohio native in Las Vegas. While he livecoded a game between the Pelicans and Grizzlies in the Vegas Summer League playoffs, LaBrae graduate Peyton Aldridge was on the floor for the Grizzlies. Tramer distinctly remembers Aldridge’s 30-point performance when they last met on a court in 2013, as LaBrae eliminated Beachwood from the state basketball tournament in a regional semifinal.
Tramer credits Cleveland’s basketball scene in his growth within the game. While at Penn State, he encountered VASJ’s Dererk Pardon at Northwestern and fellow Beachwood graduate Maishe Dailey at Iowa. During Tramer’s playing days, he trained with Bob Nance. He calls the area’s basketball community unique, even if it’s not well-known outside the state. Tramer plans to move to New Orleans in August. He never voiced his desire to find a home in the NBA as he told his father long ago he would attend Penn State, but Tramer never relinquished a career in professional basketball as a goal.
“It’s just one of those things where you know you can do it,” Tramer said. “The stars kind of have to align sometimes, and they kind of have been. I just feel very fortunate and I’m just excited for it.”