Ron Mercer (born May 18, 1976 in Nashville, Tennessee), was a star basketball player at the University of Kentucky and currently plays in the National Basketball Association for the New Jersey Nets. He had a very prosperous collegiate career and was part of a national championship team in his freshman year. He was selected by the Boston Celtics in the first round (6th pick overall) of the 1997 NBA Draft and was reunited with Rick Pitino, his coach at Kentucky who had just become the coach of the Celtics.

After two seasons in Boston, Mercer was traded by the Celtics along with Popeye Jones and Dwayne Schintzius to the Denver Nuggets for Danny Fortson , Eric Williams, Eric Washington and a future draft choice. He played 37 games for Denver, playing his other 31 games that year with the Orlando Magic.

He left after that season, the next year signing as a free agent with the Chicago Bulls. He averaged 19.7 points per game in his first year with Chicago. In his second season there he fared nearly as well, averaging 16.8 points per game, but he was traded partway through the season with Brad Miller, Ron Artest and Kevin Ollie to the Indiana Pacers for Jalen Rose, Travis Best , Norman Richardson , and a second-round draft pick. In Indiana he served merely as a role player, and his play declined rapidly.

Before the 2003-2004 season, he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs in a three-team trade that also involved Brad Miller and Hedo Turkoglu. After playing one year with the Spurs, he was released. Before the 2004-2005 season, he signed with his seventh NBA team, the New Jersey Nets.