There is no one else that caused as much of a stir in the off-season as Antonius Cleveland when he left the Illawarra Hawks for the Adelaide 36ers.
Leaving Illawarra to join fellow import Robert Franks who had just left the Brisbane Bullets, on a two-year deal in the “City of Churches”.
Winning the Defensive Player of the Year in the 2021/22 season, Cleveland is widely regarded across the globe for his defensive game. When talking to James Rush on his YouTube show, he spoke about what makes him a great defender.
“I think with my athleticism I’m able to be a little quicker, faster which helps on that end. In Memphis growing up playing basketball, you never really want anyone scoring on you [because] you’ll hear about it the next day. Like ‘oh man, I was killing AC yesterday’. So, I’ve just always had that mentality,” Cleveland said.
“I don’t want anyone really just scoring on me, thinking they’re better than me so I kinda just took that with me this whole time and over here it’s kinda just magnified I guess because [there are] not too many imports that stand out with my athleticism guarding you know all over the place and guarding different players.”
He averaged 14.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.2 blocks per game during his time in Wollongong, while making the All-NBL First Team in the process. Illawarra would be knocked out in the semi-finals to eventual champions the Sydney Kings. Even though he didn’t achieve his definition of team success by winning a championship, being the best that he could be is all that matters to him on an individual level.
“If I work hard and it’s really just to be the best that I can be then I got to live with that. Nothing more I can do so that’s always my goal just never try to be better than anyone, be the best you can be,” he said.
“As far as a team aspect, of course win the championship, but individually… that’s all you gotta ask for.”
Now at the 36ers, they have come into this season with a ‘championship or bust’ mentality with not bringing back a banner to the formerly nicknamed ‘Title Town’ since 2002.
Cleveland reflects this when talking about his goals for the season, saying: “Just win, I want to impact winning. I want people to say, ‘he was a winner’. I didn’t win a championship last year, but I think that I was a winner.”
“I helped my team be good so I want to always do that and hopefully that can turn into a championship this year but, I just want to ‘be in the mix’ and be a winner and be that guy who helps his team win and it’s the main catalyst for this team is winning so that’s my goal for this season.”
Although he led his college, Southeast Missouri State University in scoring in both junior and senior years, Cleveland was undrafted in the 2017 NBA draft. Nonetheless, he was picked up by multiple NBA teams from 2017 through to 2021.
He said that he couldn’t be himself during his stints in the association and was more focussed on not making a mistake rather than playing basketball.
“Being in the NBA, when I’m out there I don’t feel like I have room to talk you know, because I’m only out there for a short period of time and I’m not really doing a lot offensively,” he said.
“Over here I can really be myself and really be who I am and in the NBA it’s just about ‘ok, these three-four minutes I’m out here let’s focus’ and really I wasn’t myself, and that’s the only thing I kind of regret about those stints like I feel like I wasn’t AC, I was just someone trying to not mess up.”
To watch the full interview with James Rush, see here:
Authored By:
Jackson MacDonald