Mickell Gladness

Mickell Gladness

Gladness as a member of the Miami Heat in December 2011
No. 32 – Kalev/Cramo
Position	Center
League	Korvpalli Meistriliiga VTB United League
Personal information
Born	(1986-07-26) July 26, 1986 (age 30) 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
Playing career	2008–present
Career history
2008–2009	Matrixx Magixx
2009–2011	Rio Grande Valley Vipers
2011	Dakota Wizards
2011–2012	Miami Heat
2012	Golden State Warriors
2012–2013	Santa Cruz Warriors
2013–2014	Reno Bighorns
2014	Jiangxi Xinye
2014–2015	Townsville Crocodiles
2015	Canterbury Rams
2015–2016	Maccabi Ashdod
2016	San Lorenzo de Almagro
2016–present	Kalev/Cramo
Career highlights and awards
NBA D-League champion (2010) 2× NBA D-League All-Defensive Third Team (2013, 2014) NCAA Division I record for blocks in a game (16) Led NCAA in blocks per game (2007) 2× First-team All-SWAC (2007, 2008) 2× SWAC Defensive Player of the Year (2007, 2008)

Mickell Jawaun Gladness (born July 26, 1986) is an American professional basketball player for Kalev/Cramo of the Korvpalli Meistriliiga. 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.

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

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

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. 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. 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.