Mickell Gladness

Mickell Gladness

Gladness as a member of the Miami Heat in December 2011
No. 32 – Canterbury Rams
Position Center
League NZNBL
Personal information
Born July 26, 1986
Birmingham, Alabama
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)
Listed weight 230 lb (104 kg)
Career information
High school Sylacauga (Sylacauga, Alabama)
College Lawson State CC (2004–2005)
Alabama A&M (2005–2008)
NBA draft 2008 / Undrafted
Pro career 2008–present
Career history
2008–2009 Matrixx Magixx (Netherlands)
2009–2011 Rio Grande Valley Vipers (D-League)
2011 Dakota Wizards (D-League)
2011–2012 Miami Heat
2012 Golden State Warriors
2012–2013 Santa Cruz Warriors (D-League)
2013–2014 Reno Bighorns (D-League)
2014 Jiangxi Xinye (China 2nd)
2014–2015 Townsville Crocodiles (Australia)
2015–present Canterbury Rams (New Zealand)
Career highlights and awards

Mickell Jawaun Gladness (born July 26, 1986) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the Canterbury Rams of the New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL). Gladness grew up in Alabama, played college basketball for Lawson State Community College and Alabama A&M University, and began his professional career in the Netherlands after going undrafted in the 2008 NBA draft. In 2011, Gladness debuted in the NBA with the Miami Heat.

Early life

Gladness was born in Birmingham, Alabama and grew up in Sylacauga where he attended Sylacauga High School from 2000 to 2004.[1]

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.[1] He transferred to Alabama A&M in 2005 where he played out the remaining three years of his college eligibility. At Alabama A&M, Gladness majored in business management.[2]

Due to NCAA 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 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.[2] It was in his junior season, however, that Gladness made a name for himself in college basketball. Playing in 30 games, Gladness rose out of seemingly nowhere to lead the nation in blocked shots per game at 6.3, with an adjusted-per-40 minutes rate of 7.9 bpg.[1][2] He set an NCAA Division I single game record with 16 blocks against Texas Southern on February 24, 2007.[1][2] No other player in Division I history has even recorded 15 blocks in a single game.[1][2] Despite showing similar statistics otherwise, Gladness' blocks per game average dropped to 4.5 for his senior year.[1][2] It is speculated that opposing players now knew of his shot-blocking ability and avoided getting too close for him to block their shots.[1][2] 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.[1][2] In his final two seasons, Gladness was a first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference selection.[1][2]

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.[2][3] In 2009, he opted out of the second year of his two-year contract with Matrixx.[2]

In November 2009, Gladness was acquired by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA Development League where he went on to help the team win the 2010 D-League championship. He subsequently joined the Miami Heat 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,[4] and on October 30, he was reacquired by the Vipers.[4] 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.[4]

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. On February 7, 2012, he was waived by the Heat,[5] 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,[4][6] 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.[7] On April 1, 2012, he signed with the Warriors for the rest of the 2011–12 season.[8] 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.[9]

On September 7, 2012, Gladness re-signed with the Miami Heat.[10] However, he was later waived again on October 21, 2012.[11] On November 28, 2012, he was acquired by the Santa Cruz Warriors.[12]

In September 2013, Gladness signed with the Orlando Magic.[13] However, he was later waived by the Magic on October 25, 2013.[14] After returning to Santa Cruz on December 9, 2013, he was traded the following day to the Reno Bighorns.[15] Following the 2013–14 D-League season, he joined Jiangxi Xinye of the Chinese NBL.[16]

On June 12, 2014, Gladness signed with the Townsville Crocodiles for the 2014–15 NBL season.[17] On February 9, 2015, he signed with the Canterbury Rams for the 2015 New Zealand NBL season.[18]

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

NBA

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2011–12 Miami 8 0 3.5 .333 .000 .000 1.4 .3 .1 .1 .3
2011–12 Golden State 18 7 12.4 .429 .000 .500 2.6 .2 .2 1.1 3.0
Career 26 7 9.7 .424 .000 .500 2.2 .2 .2 .8 2.2

NBL

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2014–15 Townsville 27 27 25.1 .531 .000 .506 7.7 .4 .3 2.2 9.1
Career 27 27 25.1 .531 .000 .506 7.7 .4 .3 2.2 9.1

Personal

Gladness and his wife, Adriana, have a son named Cale.[19]

See also

References

External links