Jim Cleamons

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Jim Cleamons
Personal information
Born (1949-09-13) September 13, 1949 (age 76)
Lincolnton, North Carolina, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Listed weight185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
High schoolLinden-McKinley (Columbus, Ohio)
CollegeOhio State (1968–1971)
NBA draft1971: 1st round, 13th overall pick
Drafted byLos Angeles Lakers
Playing career1971–1980
PositionShooting guard / point guard
Number11, 5, 35, 33
Coaching career1982–present
Career history
Playing
1971–1972Los Angeles Lakers
1972–1977Cleveland Cavaliers
1977–1979New York Knicks
1979–1980Washington Bullets
Coaching
1982–1983Furman (assistant)
1983–1987Ohio State (assistant)
1987–1989Youngstown State
1989–1996Chicago Bulls (assistant)
1996–1997Dallas Mavericks
1998–1999Chicago Condors
1999–2004Los Angeles Lakers (assistant)
2004–2006New Orleans Hornets (assistant)
2006–2011Los Angeles Lakers (assistant)
2011–2012Zhejiang Guangsha
2013–2014Milwaukee Bucks (assistant)
2014–2016New York Knicks (assistant)
2017–2018Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (assistant)
Career highlights
As player:

As assistant coach:

Career statistics
Points5,412 (8.3 ppg)
Rebounds1,981 (3.0 rpg)
Assists2,531 (3.9 apg)
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Stats at Basketball Reference
Stats at Basketball ReferenceLua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
Women's Basketball Hall of Fame

James Mitchell Cleamons (born September 13, 1949) is an American former professional basketball player and was a coach in the NBA and at the college and high school levels. He was an assistant coach on nine National Basketball Association (NBA) championship teams.

Early life

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Cleamons was born on September 13, 1949, in Lincolnton, North Carolina. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Linden-McKinley High School in 1967. He played on an Ohio state championship basketball team at Linden-McKinley.[1][2][3]

College

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Cleamons attended Ohio State University in Columbus, earning a degree in education. He played on its basketball team as a swingman. He played forward as a sophomore and junior, and point guard his senior year (1970–71). In 1971, he was team captain and led the team to a Big Ten championship. The team had a 20–6 record overall. In the 1971 NCAA tournament, the Buckeyes defeated Marquette in the regional semifinals, but lost to Western Kentucky in overtime at the regional finals. Ohio State finished the season ranked 10th in the nation by the Associated Press (AP).[1][2][4][5][6][7]

He averaged 18.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game over three years.[8] He was selected first-team All-Big Ten for the 1970-71 season.[9]

Playing career

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Cleamons was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 13th pick of the 1971 NBA draft.[10] He had a nine-year NBA career for four teams (the Lakers, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the New York Knicks, and the Washington Bullets). In 1976, Cleamons was selected to the NBA All-Defense second team.[11] His playing height and weight are listed as 6 ft 3 in (1.91m), 185 pounds (84 kg).[12]

In 1971-72, Cleamons was the only rookie playing on a Lakers team that won 33 straight games, finished the regular season 69–13, and won the NBA championship. It is considered one of the greatest teams in league history.[13][14][15] As back-up point guard to future Hall of Fame player Jerry West, Cleamons averaged only 5.3 minutes per game.[15][16]

In August 1972, the Lakers traded Cleamons to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a second round draft pick. On hearing he was traded, Cleamons cried.[3][12] He was a part-time player during his first two years in Cleveland, but in the 1974-75 season his playing time increased to over 36 minutes per game.[12]

He started every game in the 1975-76 season for the Cavaliers, averaging a career high 12.2 points per game, along with 4.3 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. This was the Cavaliers first truly successful squad in its six-year history, and became known as the "Miracle of Richfield" team under coach Bill Fitch.[12][17] Cleamons was a key young player on a team that included a focus on "dogged defense".[3]

The team won its first playoff round over the Washington Bullets in a dramatic seven game series decided by two points in the final game,[18] but lost to the Boston Celtics in the next round.[19] Cleamons' most memorable play as a Cavalier came in Game 5 of the Bullets series, when he grabbed a Bingo Smith air ball and put in the game-winning layup in the game's last seconds.[3]

Cleamons played one more season in Cleveland, and signed as a free agent with the New York Knicks in October 1977, with the Cavaliers receiving the 32-year old Walt Frazier as compensation.[12][20] Cleamons played two full seasons with the Knicks, and early in his third season (1979–80), he was traded to the Bullets for a 1981 third round draft pick. He was the first Knick to make a three-point field goal in the regular season. He averaged 26.9 minutes per game in 57 games for the Bullets, in what was his final NBA season as a player.[12][2]

Coaching career

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After retiring as a player, Cleamons began coaching at the college level. He was an assistant coach at Furman (1982–83) and Ohio State (1983-1987), and became head coach at Youngstown State from 1987-89.[21][6]

Cleamons had been a teammate of Phil Jackson when they played together with the Knicks. They both knew basketball and had "basketball chemistry" in discussing the game. A decade later, in 1989, when Jackson became head coach of the Chicago Bulls, he invited Cleamons to join his staff, and Cleamons eventually did so.[3] He would be Jackon's assistant on nine NBA championship teams with the Bulls and Lakers, coaching both Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant (among others).[6]

Cleamons worked as an assistant coach for the Bulls from 1989 to 1996.[22] He was the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks for slightly over one year, from 1996 to 1997.[6][22] He then was the head coach of the Chicago Condors of the American Basketball league, a short-lived women's professional basketball league in the mid Nineties.[7]

He was an assistant coach again with Jackson with the Lakers, from 1999-2004 and 2006-11.[21][23] Between the two periods with the Lakers, he was an assistant with the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets (2004-2006). In 2011, Cleamons became a coach in the Chinese Basketball Association.[24] In 2013, he became an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks for one season.[7] For a few games during his tenure with the Lakers, he served as acting head coach while Phil Jackson was absent.[25]

In 2014, Jackson hired Cleamons to join the New York Knicks coaching staff under Derek Fisher.[26]

In 2017, Cleamons accepted a position as an assistant coach for the Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (YULA) high school boys basketball team.[27][28] He was not on the coaching staff for the 2019-2020 season.[29]

Personal life

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In late 2019 and early 2020, Cleamons served as an NBA basketball ambassador in Africa and Australia. In 2020, he and his wife returned to live in Columbus.[2] He coached the Ohio team in the 2022 HCBU College Basketball All Star Game.[30] Since moving back to Columbus he has served as a motivational speaker and basketball instructor to high school youth.[31][30]

Honors

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In 1984, he was inducted into the Ohio State Hall of Fame.[32] In 2008, he was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.[1] In 2019, he was inducted into the Ohio High School Circle of Champions.[33]

Career playing statistics

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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
 †  Won an NBA championship

NBA

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Source[34]

Regular season

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1971–72† L.A. Lakers 38 5.3 .350 .778 1.0 .9 2.6
1972–73 Cleveland 80 17.4 .454 .743 2.1 2.6 5.7
1973–74 Cleveland 81 20.3 .433 .699 2.8 2.8 .8 .2 7.0
1974–75 Cleveland 74 36.4 .480 .796 4.4 5.1 1.1 .3 11.9
1975–76 Cleveland 82 82 34.6 .466 .798 4.3 5.2 1.5 .2 12.2
1976–77 Cleveland 60 34.1 .434 .757 4.6 5.1 1.1 .4 10.4
1977–78 New York 79 44 25.4 .480 .786 2.7 3.6 .9 .2 6.5
1978–79 New York 79 71 30.3 .473 .760 2.8 4.8 .9 .1 9.5
1979–80 New York 22 0 11.5 .435 .375 .800 .9 1.8 .6 .1 3.4
1979–80 Washington 57 26.9 .483 .174 .735 2.3 4.4 .8 .2 7.8
Career 652 197 26.1 .460 .226 .765 3.0 3.9 1.0 .2 8.3

Playoffs

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Year Team GP MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1972† L.A. Lakers 6 2.8 .571 – .7 .7 1.3
1976 Cleveland 13 38.7 .397 .825 5.5 4.7 .6 .2 13.8
1978 New York 6 21.2 .389 1.000 2.2 3.8 .5 .0 5.7
1980 Washington 2 10.0 .000 – – .5 .5 .5 .0 .0
Career 27 24.7 .396 – .848 3.3 3.3 .6 .1 8.2

Head coaching record

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College

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Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Youngstown State Penguins (Ohio Valley Conference[35]) (1987–1988)
1987–88 Youngstown State [36] 7–21 2–12 7th
Youngstown State (Independent) (1988–1989)
1988–89 Youngstown State[37] 5–23
Youngstown State: 12–44 (.214) 2–12 (.143)
Total: 12–44 (.214)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

NBA

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Legend
Regular season G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win–loss %
Playoffs PG Playoff games PW Playoff wins PL Playoff losses PW–L % Playoff win–loss %
Team Year G W L W–L% Finish PG PW PL PW–L% Result
Dallas 1996–97 82 24 58 .293 5th in Midwest — — — — Missed Playoffs
Dallas 1997–98 16 4 12 .250 (fired) — — — — —
Career 98 28 70 .286 — — — —

References

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  24. ^ Chandler is rolling the dice by going to China Archived 2011-11-10 at the Wayback Machine
  25. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  35. ^ http://ovcsports.com/documents/2013/10/21/2013-14%20OVC%20Basketball%20Media%20Guide.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  36. ^ http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/statsPDFArchive/MBB1/A/Men%27s%20Basketball_Men%27s_Division%20I_1988_817_Youngstown%20State%20University.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  37. ^ http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/statsPDFArchive/MBB1/A/Men%27s%20Basketball_Men%27s_Division%20I_1989_817_Youngstown%20State%20University.pdf [bare URL PDF]
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