Mickell Jawaun Gladness (born July 26, 1986) is an American professional

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, who last played for

Arka Gdynia Morski Związkowy Klub Sportowy Arka Gdynia () is a Polish professional football club, based in Gdynia, Poland, that plays in the Polish I liga. The club was founded as Klub Sportowy Gdynia in 1929. History The history of Arka dates back to ...

of the

Polish Basketball League Polska Liga Koszykówki (PLK) (English: Polish Basketball League) is a professional men's club basketball league in Poland. It constitutes the first and highest-tier level of the Polish league pyramid. The winning team of the final round are crow ...

(PLK). Gladness grew up in

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

, played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for Lawson State Community College and

Alabama A&M University Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (Alabama A&M) is a public historically black land-grant university in Normal, Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1875, it took its present name in 1969. AAMU is a member-school of the Thurgood Marsh ...

, and he began his professional career in the Netherlands after going undrafted in the 2008 NBA draft. In 2011, Gladness debuted in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball 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 in the United St ...

(NBA) with the

Miami Heat The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The club plays its home games at FT ...

Early life

Gladness was born in

Jasper, Alabama Jasper is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Alabama, United States. Its population was 14,352 as of the 2010 census. Named in honor of Sergeant William Jasper, an American Revolutionary War hero, Jasper was settled around 1815 and ...

and grew up in Sylacauga where he attended Sylacauga High School from 2000 to 2004.

College career

In his first and only season playing basketball for Lawson State Community College, Gladness averaged modest numbers with 3.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. He transferred to

Alabama A&M Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (Alabama A&M) is a public historically black land-grant university in Normal, Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1875, it took its present name in 1969. AAMU is a member-school of the Thurgood Mars ...

in 2005 where he played out the remaining three years of his college eligibility. At Alabama A&M, Gladness majored in

business management Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of managemen ...

. Due to

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

rules where a player does not have to sit out one full season if he or she transfers up a division (in this case, from a

community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior se ...

up to Division I) Gladness was able to begin playing immediately as a true sophomore in 2005–06. He appeared in 26 games and blocked 77 shots. It was in his

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

season, however, that Gladness made a name for himself in college basketball. Playing in 30 games, Gladness led the nation in blocked shots per game at 6.3, with an adjusted-per-40 minutes rate of 7.9 bpg. He set an NCAA Division I single game record with 16 blocks against Texas Southern on February 24, 2007. No other player in Division I history has even recorded 15 blocks in a single game. Despite showing similar statistics otherwise, Gladness' blocks per game average dropped to 4.5 for his senior year. It is speculated that opposing players now knew of his shot-blocking ability and avoided getting too close for him to block their shots. Although he did not repeat as the NCAA season shots blocked leader, he did graduate having blocked 396 shots in only three seasons of Division I basketball, which was good enough to be in the all-time top 25 when he graduated. In his final two seasons, Gladness was a first-team All- Southwestern Athletic Conference selection.

Professional career

Gladness went undrafted in the 2008 NBA draft. In July 2008, he signed a two-year deal with Matrixx Magixx of the Dutch Basketball League. In 2009, he opted out of the second year of his two-year contract with Matrixx. In November 2009, Gladness was acquired by the

Rio Grande Valley Vipers The Rio Grande Valley Vipers are an American professional basketball team of the NBA G League based in Edinburg, Texas, and are affiliated with the Houston Rockets. The Vipers play their home games at the Bert Ogden Arena. The Vipers have won fo ...

of the NBA Development League where he went on to help the team win the 2010 D-League championship. He subsequently joined

for the 2010 NBA Summer League and on September 27, 2010, he signed with the Heat. However, he was later waived on October 11, 2010, and on October 30, he was reacquired by the Vipers. On January 24, 2011, he was waived by the Vipers. Five days later, he was acquired by the Dakota Wizards, only to be waived by the team on March 19, 2011. In November 2011, Gladness was reacquired by the Dakota Wizards. On December 9, 2011, he signed with the Miami Heat and went on to make his NBA debut on December 25 against

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. On February 7, 2012, he was waived by the Heat, only to re-sign with the team on February 11 to a 10-day contract. On February 28, he signed a second 10-day contract with the Heat, but after that expired, he parted ways with the Heat after appearing in just eight games. On March 22, 2012, Gladness signed a 10-day contract with the Golden State Warriors. On April 1, 2012, he signed with the Warriors for the rest of the 2011–12 season. Gladness started the final seven games of the regular season for the Warriors, recording a season-best game on April 26 in the season finale against San Antonio with 14 points and 9 rebounds. On September 7, 2012, Gladness re-signed with the Miami Heat. However, he was later waived again on October 21, 2012. On November 28, 2012, he was acquired by the

Santa Cruz Warriors The Santa Cruz Warriors are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Santa Cruz, California, and are affiliated with the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors play their home games at Kaiser Permanente Arena. Prior t ...

. In September 2013, Gladness signed with the Orlando Magic. However, he was later waived by the Magic on October 25, 2013. After returning to Santa Cruz on December 9, 2013, he was traded the following day to the

Reno Bighorns Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

. Following the 2013–14 D-League season, he joined Jiangxi Xinye of the Chinese NBL. On June 12, 2014, Gladness signed with the

Townsville Crocodiles The Townsville Crocodiles were an Australian professional men's basketball team based in the North Queensland city of Townsville. They competed in the National Basketball League (NBL) and played their home games at the Townsville Entertainmen ...

for the

2014–15 NBL season The 2014–15 NBL season was the 37th season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of eight teams contested the league. The regular season was played between 10 October 2014 and 22 February 2015, followed by a post-season featu ...

. In 27 games for the Crocodiles, he averaged 9.1 points, 7.7 rebounds and a league-leading 2.2 blocks per game. On February 9, 2015, Gladness signed with the Canterbury Rams for the

2015 New Zealand NBL season The 2015 NBL season was the 34th season of the National Basketball League. The season draw was supposed to be released in December 2014, but the withdrawal of Otago and Waikato prompted a rethink for the 2015 competition format. In the past, e ...

. In 18 games for the Rams, he averaged 11.1 points, 11.3 rebounds and a league-leading 2.3 blocks per game. In September 2015, Gladness signed with

Maccabi Ashdod Maccabi Ashdod B.C. ( he, מכבי אשדוד) is a professional basketball team based in the port city of Ashdod, Israel. The team currently plays in the Israeli National League. History The team was founded in 1961 by "Maccabi Ashdod Sport ...

of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. He left the team in March 2016 after appearing in 21 games. Later that month, he joined

San Lorenzo de Almagro Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro, commonly known as San Lorenzo de Almagro or simply San Lorenzo (in English: ''Saint Lawrence''), is a sports club of Argentina in the Boedo district of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its football team ...

of Argentina, but his stint lasted just three games. On May 6, 2016, Gladness joined NBL All-Australian side in China to provide some additional height and defensive play in the three-game series against the Chinese national team. On September 16, 2016, Gladness signed with Estonian club Kalev/Cramo. That season, Gladness led the VTB League in blocks with 1.5 per game and helped Kalev/Cramo to win the 2017 Estonian League Championship. On September 19, 2017, Gladness signed with Spanish club

Bilbao Basket Club Basket Bilbao Berri S.A.D., commonly known as Bilbao Basket (), also known as Surne Bilbao Basket for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Bilbao, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB. Their home arena is the Bilba ...

. In 42 games played for Bilbao, he averaged 5.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. On September 10, 2018, Gladness returned to Israel for a second stint, signing a one-month contract with

Ironi Nes Ziona Ironi Ness Ziona B.C. (or spelled as Ironi Nes Ziona B.C.) is a professional basketball club based in Ness Ziona, Israel. The team plays its home games at the Lev Hamoshava, which has capacity for 1,200 people. The club plays in the Israeli Bas ...

as an injury cover for Gerald Lee. On September 26, 2018, Gladness recorded a season-high 22 points, shooting 9-of-12 from the field, along with seven rebounds and three blocks in a 100–76 win over the

Södertälje Kings Södertälje ( , ) is a city in Södermanland and Stockholm County, Sweden and seat of Södertälje Municipality. As of 2017, it has 72,704 inhabitants. Södertälje is located at Mälarens confluence in to the Baltic Sea through the lock in the ...

. On October 5, 2018, Gladness signed a one-month contract extension with Nes Ziona after impressing during their first games in the FIBA Europe Cup Qualifying rounds. On November 14, 2018, Gladness parted ways with Nes Ziona to join the Italian team Pistoia Basket. In 10 games played for Pistoia, he averaged 6.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. On February 27, 2019, Gladness joined Portuguese team Benfica for the rest of the season. On December 8, 2019, he has signed with San-en NeoPhoenix of the B.League. On February 22, 2020, he has signed with

of the

(PLK).

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

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Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

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NBL

Regular season

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Personal

Gladness and his wife, Adriana, have two sons Cale and Finn.From the NBA to NZ: No regrets for new Canterbury Ram Mickell Gladness
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References

External links

Early life

College career

Professional career

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

NBL

Regular season

Personal

See also

References

External links