Antonius Cleveland

Antonius Cleveland (born February 2, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for Lokomotiv Kuban of the VTB United League. He played college basketball for Southeast Missouri State University. He played in the NBA for the Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks.

Quick Facts No. 1 – Lokomotiv Kuban, Position ...

Antonius Cleveland
No. 1 – Lokomotiv Kuban

Position	Small forward / shooting guard
League	VTB United League
Personal information
Born	(1994-02-02) February 2, 1994 (age 31) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Listed height	196 cm (6 ft 5 in)
Listed weight	90 kg (198 lb)
Career information
High school	Overton (Memphis, Tennessee) Germantown (Germantown, Tennessee) Faith Baptist Christian Academy (Ludowici, Georgia)
College	Southeast Missouri State (2013–2017)
NBA draft	2017: undrafted
Playing career	2017–present
Career history
2017	Santa Cruz Warriors
2017	Dallas Mavericks
2017	→Texas Legends
2018	Atlanta Hawks
2018–2019	Santa Cruz Warriors
2019–2020	Dallas Mavericks
2019–2020	→Texas Legends
2021	Oklahoma City Blue
2021–2022	Illawarra Hawks
2022–2023	Adelaide 36ers
2023	Hapoel Eilat
2023–2024	Maccabi Tel Aviv
2024–present	Lokomotiv Kuban

Career highlights and awards
All-NBL First Team (2022) 2× NBL Best Defensive Player (2022, 2023) First-team All-OVC (2017)

Stats at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball Reference

Early life

Cleveland was born in Memphis, Tennessee, as the only child of mother Shonda Bowie.^[1] Bowie worked two jobs to support herself and Cleveland: as a nutrition supervisor for Memphis City Schools during the day and with FedEx during the night.^[1]

Cleveland started his basketball career at Overton High School in Memphis for his freshman and sophomore seasons.^[1] He transferred to Germantown High School in nearby Germantown for his junior season.^[1] Cleveland spent his senior year at Faith Baptist Christian Academy in Ludowici, Georgia.^[1]

College career

Cleveland played for Southeast Missouri State University for four seasons, where he was the team's leading scorer in his junior (15.2 PPG; 10th in the conference) and senior (16.6 PPG; 7th in the conference) years.^[1]^[2]^[3] In his junior year he was also 5th in the conference with 1.6 steals per game, 9th with 6.6 rebounds per game, and 10th with a .437 field goal percentage.^[2] In his senior year he was also 3rd in the conference in steals per game (1.4), and 5th in field goal percentage (.543).^[4] He was selected to the All-Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) first-team in 2017.^[5]

Professional career

Summarize

Perspective

Dallas Mavericks (2017)

After going undrafted in the 2017 NBA draft, Cleveland signed with the Portland Trail Blazers to join their roster for the 2017 NBA Summer League. While playing for Portland, he averaged 5.8 ppg in six games coming off the bench. On July 27, 2017, Cleveland signed with the Golden State Warriors on a training camp deal. On September 30, Cleveland was waived by the Warriors.^[6] He was then assigned to the Santa Cruz Warriors NBA G League affiliate team on October 24, 2017.

On November 17, 2017, Cleveland signed a two-way contract with the Dallas Mavericks.^[7] He made his NBA debut later that night in a 111–87 blowout loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, recording 2 points and 2 rebounds in 6 minutes of play.^[8] Throughout his time on that two-way deal, he would split his playing time between the Mavericks and their G League affiliate, the Texas Legends. On December 18, 2017, he was injured in a 97–91 loss to the Phoenix Suns. He was waived from the team a day later, with his spot on the team being replaced by Kyle Collinsworth.^[9]

Atlanta Hawks (2018)

On February 22, 2018, the Atlanta Hawks signed Cleveland to a 10-day contract.^[10] He signed his second 10-day contract with Atlanta on March 4. On March 14, 2018, Atlanta signed Cleveland to a multi-year contract.^[11] On July 21, 2018, Cleveland was placed on waivers by the Hawks.^[12]

On July 23, 2018, the Chicago Bulls claimed Cleveland off waivers.^[13] He was waived by the Bulls on October 12, 2018.^[14] He re-joined the Santa Cruz Warriors for the 2018–19 season.^[15]

Return to Dallas (2019–2020)

On July 25, 2019, Cleveland re-signed with the Dallas Mavericks on a two-way contract with the Texas Legends.^[16] He averaged 14.4 points and 7.3 rebounds for the G League Legends.^[17]

Oklahoma City Blue (2021)

On December 3, 2020, Cleveland signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder, but was waived the same day.^[18]^[19] He then joined the Thunder's G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue.

Illawarra Hawks (2021–2022)

On August 2, 2021, Cleveland signed with the Illawarra Hawks in Australia for the 2021–22 NBL season.^[20] He was named the NBL Best Defensive Player.^[21]

Adelaide 36ers and Hapoel Eilat (2022–2023)

On June 9, 2022, Cleveland signed a two-year deal with the Adelaide 36ers.^[22] He earned a second consecutive NBL Best Defensive Player Award for the 2022–23 season.^[23] He parted ways with the 36ers after one season.^[24]

On February 8, 2023, Cleveland signed a short-term deal with Hapoel Eilat of the Israeli Basketball Premier League, with an eye to returning to the NBL in 2024.^[25]

Maccabi Tel Aviv (2023–2024)

On July 27, 2023, Cleveland signed a two-year deal with Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League.^[26] He averaged 5.4 points and 1.7 rebounds per game during the 2023–24 season.^[27] On July 18, 2024, Maccabi Tel Aviv announced that Cleveland would not be returning for the 2024–25 season.^[27]