| Antonius Cleveland | |
| Position: | Small forward / shooting guard |
| Height Cm: | 196 |
| Weight Kg: | 90 |
| League: | VTB United League |
| Team: | Lokomotiv Kuban |
| Birth Date: | 2 February 1994 |
| Birth Place: | Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| High School: |
|
| Draft Year: | 2017 |
| Career Start: | 2017 |
| Years1: | 2017 |
| Team1: | Santa Cruz Warriors |
| Team2: | Dallas Mavericks |
| Years3: | 2017 |
| Team3: | → Texas Legends |
| Team4: | Atlanta Hawks |
| Years5: | 2018–2019 |
| Team5: | Santa Cruz Warriors |
| Team6: | Dallas Mavericks |
| Years7: | 2019–2020 |
| Team7: | → Texas Legends |
| Years8: | 2021 |
| Team8: | Oklahoma City Blue |
| Years9: | 2021–2022 |
| Team9: | Illawarra Hawks |
| Years10: | 2022–2023 |
| Team10: | Adelaide 36ers |
| Years11: | 2023 |
| Team11: | Hapoel Eilat |
| Years12: | 2023–2024 |
| Team12: | Maccabi Tel Aviv |
| Years13: | 2024–present |
| Team13: | Lokomotiv Kuban |
| Highlights: |
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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.
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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.
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]
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]
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]
|-| style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2"| | style="text-align:left;"| Dallas| 13 || 0 || 6.2 || .286 || .000 || .500 || .8 || .2 || .5 || .3 || .8|-| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta| 4 || 0 || 10.5 || .571 || 1.000 || 1.000 || 1.0 || .0 || .3 || .3 || 3.3|-| style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Dallas| 11 || 0 || 4.2 || .286 || .000 || .600 || .6 || .1 || .1 || .3 || 1.0|- class="sortbottom"| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career| 28 || 0 || 6.0 || .343 || .429 || .636 || .8 || .1 || .3 || .3 || 1.2
|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2020| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas| 2 || 0 || 4.5 || .400 || .000 || .000 || .5 || .0 || .5 || .0 || 2.0|- class="sortbottom"| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career| 2 || 0 || 4.5 || .400 || .000 || .000 || .5 || .0 || .5 || .0 || 2.0
|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2023–24| style="text-align:left;"| Maccabi| 39 || 4 || 14.2 || .455 || .271 || .705 || 1.7 || .7 || .9 || .5 || 5.4 || 4.5|- class="sortbottom"| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career| 39 || 4 || 14.2 || .455 || .271 || .705 || 1.7 || .7 || .9 || .5 || 5.4 || 4.5
|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2013–14| style="text-align:left;"| Southeast Missouri State| 32 || 21 || 22.3 || .525 || .359 || .596 || 2.8 || 1.7 || 1.0 || .5 || 9.1|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2014–15| style="text-align:left;"| Southeast Missouri State| 30 || 30 || 29.0 || .472 || .211 || .568 || 4.8 || 1.8 || 1.3 || .5 || 10.8|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2015–16| style="text-align:left;"| Southeast Missouri State| 26 || 24 || 31.4 || .437 || .174 || .610 || 6.6 || 2.3 || 1.6 || .6 || 15.2|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2016–17| style="text-align:left;"| Southeast Missouri State| 33 || 33 || 32.9 || .543 || .384 || .660 || 5.1 || 2.2 || 1.4 || .9 || 16.6|- class="sortbottom"| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career| 121 || 108 || 28.8 || .494 || .288 || .612 || 4.7 || 2.0 || 1.3 || .6 || 12.9