Mateen Ahmad Cleaves (born September 7, 1977) is a retired American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. He played parts of six seasons in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA). He was an All-American college player for

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

, where he led the Spartans to a national championship in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

. He has also worked as a studio analyst for Fox Sports.

College career

He 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 Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of ...

, 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 The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

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 The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at L ...

. 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 The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...

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 In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who i ...

with the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

, but was waived before the 2003–04 season. He played with the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central ...

in four games. He was then signed by the

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly known as the Seattle Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Confe ...

, 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 The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA Dev ...

, also playing abroad with Russia's

Unics Kazan BC UNICS (russian: БК УНИКС) is a professional basketball club in Kazan, Russia, that plays in the VTB United League, and formerly played in the EuroLeague. On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the 20 ...

and Greece's Panionios BC. In 2008, he played with the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

in their pre-season, but was waived before the October 29 tip-off.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

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Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

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Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

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Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

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Post-playing career

On March 14, 2010, it was announced that Cleaves had joined Fox Sports Detroit as a

studio analyst. In addition Cleaves has branched out into music as an owner of the record label All Varsity Entertainment, featuring Jon Connor. Currently, Cleaves works for United Wholesale Mortgage as a leadership coach.

Criminal case

In 1998, while at Michigan State, Cleaves ran afoul of the law twice, both cases involving alcohol. One night, Cleaves took a beer from a

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...

while the clerk was in the bathroom, leaving money on the counter. Cleaves was underage at the time and the incident occurred after legal alcohol selling hours. He was benched for half a game, fined, and ordered to perform community service. Later that year, Cleaves and fellow player

Andre Hutson Andre Davon Hutson (born January 12, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player. Born in Dayton, Ohio, he played as small forward and power forward and he is 2.02 m tall. High school Hutson played high-school basketball at Tro ...

were arrested after being caught driving a car while drinking. Hutson, the driver, had a 0.02 BAC, under legal intoxication levels, but Hutson was underage and charged under Michigan's "zero tolerance" policy regarding alcohol and minors. Cleaves was charged with being a minor in possession of alcohol, refusing a breath test, and not wearing his seat belt. In October 2015, Cleaves was investigated for his role in an alleged

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

. Cleaves was accused of taking a 24-year-old woman to a motel in Mundy Township, on September 15, 2015, keeping her against her will and sexually assaulting her. He was released on a $150,000 personal bond. The case was handled by Wayne County because Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton had a conflict of interest. On December 5, 2016, after reviewing surveillance video and the alleged victim’s testimony, all charges against Cleaves were dismissed by District Court Judge M. Cathy Dowd. Prosecutors promptly appealed. On April 10, 2017, Genesee Circuit Court Judge Archie L. Hayman ruled that District Court Judge M. Cathy Dowd abused her discretion in finding no probable cause that Cleaves committed a crime, remanding the case to district court and ordering it bound over for a jury trial. On May 16, 2017, Cleaves' attorneys appealed the decision to the

Michigan Court of Appeals The Michigan Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court of the state of Michigan. It was created by the Michigan Constitution of 1963, and commenced operations in 1965. Its opinions are reported both in an official publication of ...

, arguing that Judge Hayman "ignored the evidence of the case." On August 1, 2017, it was announced three Michigan Court of Appeals judges denied Cleaves' request to review a judge's decision to reinstate sexual assault charges against him. On January 4, 2018, it was announced that the Michigan Supreme Court declined to review a judge's decision to reinstate sexual assault charges against Cleaves. In August 2019, the case returned to county court for trial, and on August 20, 2019, Cleaves was acquitted of all charges. A video published on the Internet shows the woman attempting to resist him as he pulls her back to the hotel room. Cleaves attorney Frank J. Manley released a statement saying that Cleaves was doing the right thing by pulling a naked woman back into the hotel room and allowed her to leave when fully dressed. Manley also stated that Cleaves' case was dismissed previously by a female judge who heard all the evidence and he was acquitted by a jury that had 9 out 12 jurors who were female.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleaves, Mateen 1977 births Living people 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American sportspeople African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Greece American expatriate basketball people in Russia American men's basketball players Bakersfield Jam players Basketball players from Flint, Michigan BC UNICS players Cleveland Cavaliers players Detroit Pistons draft picks Detroit Pistons players Fayetteville Patriots players Huntsville Flight players McDonald's High School All-Americans Michigan State Spartans men's basketball players Panionios B.C. players Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Point guards Sacramento Kings players Seattle SuperSonics players