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Mateen Cleaves
Mateen Cleaves (100071202) (cropped).jpg
Cleaves with the Seattle SuperSonics in 2006
Personal information
Born (1977-09-03) September 3, 1977 (age 47)
Flint, Michigan, U.S.
High school Flint Northern (Flint, Michigan)
Listed height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight 205 lb (93 kg)
Career information
College Michigan State (1996–2000)
NBA Draft 2000 / Round: 1 / Pick: 14th overall
Selected by the Detroit Pistons
Pro career 2000–2009
Career history
2000–2001 Detroit Pistons
2001–2003 Sacramento Kings
2003–2004 Huntsville Flight
2004 Cleveland Cavaliers
2004 Huntsville Flight
2004–2006 Seattle SuperSonics
2006 Fayetteville Patriots
2006–2007 UNICS Kazan
2007 Bakersfield Jam
2007–2008 Panionios
2008–2009 Bakersfield Jam
Career highlights and awards
  • NCAA champion (2000)
  • NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (2000)
  • Consensus first-team All-American (1999)
  • 2× Consensus second-team All-American (1998, 2000)
  • 2× Big Ten Player of the Year (1998, 1999)
  • Big Ten tournament MOP (1999)
  • No. 12 retired by Michigan State Spartans
  • McDonald's All-American (1996)
  • First-team Parade All-American (1996)
Medals
Representing  United States
Men's basketball
FIBA World Championship
Bronze 1998 Athens National team

Mateen Ahmad Cleaves (born September 7, 1977) is an American retired basketball player. He played parts of six seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was an All-American college player for Michigan State, where he led the Spartans to a national championship in 2000. He has also worked as a studio analyst for Fox Sports.

College career

Cleaves was a heavily recruited high school athlete. His recruiting trip with the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team touched off a major scandal after he was a passenger in a rollover accident. Cleaves eventually agreed to attend Michigan State University, the University of Michigan's in-state rival. He is one of the four MSU players from Flint, Michigan, dubbed "The Flintstones".

Cleaves, a three-time Michigan State captain, led the Spartans to the 2000 national championship, and was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

The school's only three-time All-American, Cleaves was named Big Ten Player of the Year twice. He led MSU and the conference in career assists with 816, and is Michigan State's all-time steals leader (193). In his final home game on senior night in East Lansing, Cleaves dished out 20 assists, breaking the Big Ten single-game and career assist marks.

On February 3, 2007, Cleaves became the eighth MSU player to have his number retired.

Professional career

In 2000, Cleaves was selected 14th overall in the 2000 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons. During the 2000–01 season, he played in 78 games, averaging 5.4 points and 2.7 assists.

Cleaves was traded to the Sacramento Kings shortly before the 2001–02 season for Jon Barry and a first-round draft pick. After two seasons playing sparingly, he signed as a free agent with the Boston Celtics, but was waived before the 2003–04 season. He played with the Cleveland Cavaliers in four games. He was then signed by the Seattle SuperSonics, was cut during the 2004–05 season, and re-signed during the following season.

In total, Cleaves played 167 NBA games, starting in 10 of them and had career averages of 3.6 points, 2 assists and 1 rebound a game. His final NBA game was played on February 14, 2006 in a 91 - 106 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. In that game Cleaves recorded 2 points and 3 assists.

Following his NBA stint, Cleaves appeared for the Fayetteville Patriots and the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League, also playing abroad with Russia's Unics Kazan and Greece's Panionios BC. In 2008, he played with the Denver Nuggets in their pre-season, but was waived before the October 29 tip-off.

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2000–01 Detroit 78 8 16.3 .400 .294 .708 1.7 2.7 .6 .0 5.4
2001–02 Sacramento 32 0 4.8 .441 .250 .889 .3 .8 .2 .0 2.2
2002–03 Sacramento 12 0 4.6 .261 1.000 .750 .7 .8 .2 .0 1.3
2003–04 Cleveland 4 2 23.0 .304 .000 .500 1.8 4.8 1.0 .5 3.8
2004–05 Seattle 14 0 4.6 .357 .000 .750 .4 .5 .1 .0 .9
2005–06 Seattle 27 0 8.5 .352 .250 .792 .5 1.6 .1 .1 2.7
Career 167 10 11.2 .389 .267 .728 1.0 1.9 .4 .0 3.6

Post-playing career

On March 14, 2010, it was announced that Cleaves had joined Fox Sports Detroit as a Detroit Pistons studio analyst. In addition Cleaves has branched out into music as an owner of the record label All Varsity Entertainment, featuring Jon Connor.

Cleaves joined United Wholesale Mortgage and former teammate Mat Ishbia in 2019 as a leadership development coach. In 2021 he was promoted to leader of the leadership development team and is famous in the company for his "Mateen's Motivational Tuesday" posts.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Mateen Cleaves para niños

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Mateen Cleaves para niños

  • List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 20 or more assists in a game
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