There is no question that Antonius Cleveland’s got the goods. He’s proved that at every level and with every team that he has played with. However, this season with Maccabi Tel Aviv has no doubt been a challenge for him, due to no fault of his own.
Between the Hamas massacre on October 7, which set off a paradigm of events that has affected every ounce of Israeli society, to the uncertainty and total upheaval of the 2023/24 season both in the Euroleague and Israeli competition, chaos and challenges have consumed the yellow-and-blue.
The waters have no doubt been rocky for Maccabi and for Israeli basketball as a whole and that has had a trickle-down effect for every single player and club within the system. Some have been impacted more and some less. In Cleveland’s case, he has been one of the players who fit into the former category.
Cleveland has had very little time on the floor during the club’s 25 Euroleague games to date, having played a total of 284 minutes (or roughly 11.5 minutes per game). On the face that seems to be a decent amount of time on the court, but the reality is that Cleveland played plenty of minutes at the start of the season due to an injury to Wade Baldwin and he has also had to play a bunch, in blowouts just like last week’s game against Baskonia where he featured for 15 minutes.
Maccabi fans know that Cleveland’s most important contribution was in Athens, where the guard came off the bench to provide top-of-the-line defense and offense down the stretch and into overtime of an emotional victory over Panathinaikos, the club’s first after October 7.
Yellow and blue
Due to the yellow-and-blue having to move its base of operations to Belgrade for the first few months after the war began, and since the Israeli league wasn’t in action until late November as well as the fact that Maccabi played very few games on their domestic slate due to a packed continental schedule, there were many things that coach Oded Katash wanted to do that he was unable to.
The biggest victim (using the term strictly in the basketball sense) was Cleveland, who could have benefited greatly from Israeli league games. Whether it was to understand how a Maccabi team that saw plenty of continuity plays, or to just get actual minutes on the floor and to get the competitive juices flowing, any player coming into a new system is going to need that in order to help help the team and for that player to benefit from the team.
In a 90-77 Maccabi win over Hapoel Eilat in which Cleveland was named the MVP after scoring 18 points in a number of various manners from high-flying dunks, to nifty layups to just plain deep shooting, it was crystal clear that the 30-year-old Memphis native was back in his element.
“Just being on the floor, trying to make the most of my minutes and just having fun,” an excited Cleveland said following his performance. “It’s fun to be out there, so it was all about enjoying it and playing hard. it’s always good to compete as well and it was fun just to get out here and lace them up.”
Could Cleveland have been any more clear that he was thrilled to get out there at Yad Eliyahu and play? How many times did he use the word “fun” in under a minute?
But that’s Cleveland, always positive, no matter what the situation he is in.
Last season, after having finished off his campaign in Australia with the Adelaide 36ers, where he also took home the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award, Cleveland joined Hapoel Eilat, a team that was sinking into the relegation zone, in order to save it from landing up in the Leumit League for this season.
After scoring 17.6 points in 11 games and Eilat going 6-5 in that time, Cleveland almost single-handedly made sure to keep the Red Sea squad in the top division while also collecting the Slam Dunk trophy at the league’s All-Star Game with an incredible gravity-defying, through-the-legs jam.
His positive attitude with Eilat was contagious, and that’s also the case with Maccabi, explained veteran Jake Cohen.
“He’s been great. He’s handled the adversity this season like a true professional and he’s been great in the locker room, so I’m really happy to see him perform against Eilat and be the MVP because he’s been a tremendous addition to our team on and off the court. I think that as he gets more comfortable he will show more contributions because he absolutely has the ability.”
With plenty of Israeli league games coming up this month due to the Euroleague break for cup games across the continent (due to the war, Israel’s cup games have been pushed off), as well as for the end-of-month National Team window for Eurobasket 2025 qualifiers, Cleveland will be getting lots of playing time that will no doubt benefit all the parties involved when the continental competition resumes for the final push ahead of the postseason.
“He is one of the players who was hurt the most for not having the Israeli league from the start of the season,” Katash said. “He came into a team with a lot of continuity and the league games are a chance for a player like him to get minutes, gain confidence, and learn what they can do. But it’s not just him - many players haven’t played a lot of minutes in the Euroleague because there wasn’t an Israeli league to keep in shape, get into the flow, and to be content. But what I really appreciate and admire is that despite not getting a big chance he is always positive and a pleasure to be around with the right energy.”
Cohen agreed that Cleveland has been a super-solid citizen and understood the challenges that he was facing when he joined the team and then due to the war.
“It’s been really tough since early October where we’ve been thrown out of whack and where we have not had as many Israeli games and as many practices as normal plus a lot of other stuff. So it might take a little bit longer, but I’m fully confident that he is going to integrate himself completely because he’s got all of the ability and super high-level character to do that.”
The bottom line is that Maccabi, with a 13-12 record, needs a boost, especially with nine games to go in the Euroleague. With what is considered a very manageable schedule against no less than seven sub-.500 teams, the expectation is still to get into a position to qualify for the playoffs. It will undoubtedly be difficult due to the fact that games are played on the court and not on paper, along with injuries that the players are nursing, primarily back issues for Lorenzo Brown, Baldwin, and Rafi Menco, perhaps partially due to the many flights and the lack of a regular routine, Cleveland is not a luxury but a necessity.
If Maccabi wants to make a successful run, Cleveland will probably have to be an instrumental part of it.
“We want to be ready mentally and physically,” Cleveland said. “We just got to stick to the scouting report and just go in with a sense of urgency. Go out and play, just be desperate, leave it all out there… and live with the results.”