Mickell Jawaun Gladness (born July 26, 1986) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. Gladness grew up in

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for Lawson State Community College and

Alabama A&M University Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (Alabama A&M or AAMU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Normal, Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1875, it took its present name in 1969. It was one of about 180 " normal s ...

, and he began his professional career in the Netherlands after going undrafted in the

2008 NBA draft The 2008 NBA Draft was held on June 26, 2008, at the The Theater at Madison Square Garden, Washington Mutual Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. In this NBA draft, draft, National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took t ...

. In 2011, Gladness debuted in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA) with the

Miami Heat The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern C ...

Early life

Gladness was born in

Jasper, Alabama Jasper is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Alabama, United States. Its population was 14,352 as of the 2010 census. Named in honor of Sergeant William Jasper, an American Revolutionary War hero, Jasper was settled around 1815 a ...

and grew up in Sylacauga where he attended Sylacauga High School from 2000 to 2004.

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. 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 Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

. Due to

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

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 A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...

up to Division I) Gladness was able to begin playing immediately as a true

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

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 led 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 during his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

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 The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United St ...

selection.

Professional career

Gladness went undrafted in the

. In July 2008, he signed a two-year deal with

Matrixx Magixx Matrixx Magixx was a professional basketball team based in Nijmegen and later Wijchen. The club played in the Dutch Basketball League (DBL), the Dutch top-tier league. Home games of the Magixx were played in Sporthal De Arcus since 2012, therefore ...

of the

Dutch Basketball League The Dutch Basketball League (DBL), formerly the Eredivisie, was the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands, run by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (FEB). Since 2021, the league has been replaced by the Belgian-Dutch BNXT Le ...

. In 2009, he opted out of the second year of his two-year contract with Matrixx. In November 2009, Gladness was acquired by the

Rio Grande Valley Vipers The Rio Grande Valley Vipers are an American professional basketball team of the NBA G League based in Edinburg, Texas, and are affiliated with the Houston Rockets. The Vipers play their home games at the Bert Ogden Arena. The Vipers have won f ...

of the

NBA Development League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of the 2024–25 season, ...

where he went on to help the team win the 2010 D-League championship. He subsequently joined

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, and on October 30, he was reacquired by the Vipers. 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. 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 Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. On February 7, 2012, he was waived by the Heat, 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, 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 The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Founded in 1946 i ...

. On April 1, 2012, he signed with the Warriors for the rest of the 2011–12 season. 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. On September 7, 2012, Gladness re-signed with the Miami Heat. However, he was later waived again on October 21, 2012. On November 28, 2012, he was acquired by the

Santa Cruz Warriors The Santa Cruz Warriors are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Santa Cruz, California, and are affiliated with the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors play their home games at Kaiser Permanente Arena. Prior to ...

. In September 2013, Gladness signed with the

Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NB ...

. However, he was waived by the Magic on October 25, 2013. After returning to Santa Cruz on December 9, 2013, he was traded the following day to the

Reno Bighorns Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, in the Truckee River v ...

. Following the 2013–14 D-League season, he joined Jiangxi Xinye of the Chinese NBL. On June 12, 2014, Gladness signed with the

Townsville Crocodiles The Townsville Crocodiles were an Australian professional men's basketball team based in the North Queensland city of Townsville. They competed in the National Basketball League (NBL) and played their home games at the Townsville Entertain ...

for the

2014–15 NBL season The 2014–15 NBL season was the 37th season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of eight teams contested the league. The regular season was played between 10 October 2014 and 22 February 2015, followed by a post-season feat ...

. In 27 games for the Crocodiles, he averaged 9.1 points, 7.7 rebounds and a league-leading 2.2 blocks per game. On February 9, 2015, Gladness signed with the

Canterbury Rams The Canterbury Rams are a New Zealand professional men's basketball team based in Christchurch. The Rams compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Cowles Stadium. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as Th ...

for the

2015 New Zealand NBL season The 2015 NBL season was the 34th season of the National Basketball League. The season draw was supposed to be released in December 2014, but the withdrawal of Otago and Waikato prompted a rethink for the 2015 competition format. In the past, ea ...

. In 18 games for the Rams, he averaged 11.1 points, 11.3 rebounds and a league-leading 2.3 blocks per game. In September 2015, Gladness signed with

Maccabi Ashdod Maccabi Ashdod B.C. () is a professional basketball team based in the port city of Ashdod, Israel. The team currently plays in the Israeli National League. History The team was founded in 1961 by "Maccabi Ashdod Sports Association", with the ...

of the

Israeli Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl (, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is a professional basketball league in Israel and the highest level of basketball in the country. The league's name is abbreviated as either BSL ...

. He left the team in March 2016 after appearing in 21 games. Later that month, he joined

San Lorenzo de Almagro Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro is an Argentine professional sports club based in the Boedo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its football team, which plays in the Primera División, the first tier of the Argentine foot ...

of Argentina, but his stint lasted just three games. On May 6, 2016, Gladness joined NBL All-Australian side in China to provide some additional height and defensive play in the three-game series against the Chinese national team. On September 16, 2016, Gladness signed with Estonian club Kalev/Cramo. That season, Gladness led the

VTB League The VTB United League () is an international professional men's club basketball league that was founded in 2009. It is made up of mostly Russian clubs, along with one each from Belarus and Kazakhstan. Since 2013, it is the first tier of Russian ...

in blocks with 1.5 per game and helped Kalev/Cramo win the 2017 Estonian League Championship. On September 19, 2017, Gladness signed with Spanish club

Bilbao Basket Club Basket Bilbao Berri Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D., commonly known as Bilbao Basket (), also known as Surne Bilbao Basket for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Bilbao, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB. T ...

. In the 42 games played for Bilbao, he averaged 5.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. On September 10, 2018, Gladness returned to Israel for a second stint, signing a one-month contract with Ironi Nes Ziona as an injury cover for Gerald Lee. On September 26, 2018, Gladness recorded a season-high 22 points, shooting 9-of-12 from the field, along with seven rebounds and three blocks in a 100–76 win over the

Södertälje Kings Södertälje ( , ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in Stockholm County, Sweden and seat of Södertälje Municipality. It is also a part of Stockholm urban area, Greater Stockholm Metropolitan Area. As of 2020, it has 73,872 inhabitants. Södert� ...

. On October 5, 2018, Gladness signed a one-month contract extension with Nes Ziona after impressing during their first games in the FIBA Europe Cup Qualifying rounds. On November 14, 2018, Gladness parted ways with Nes Ziona to join the Italian team Pistoia Basket. In 10 games played for Pistoia, he averaged 6.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. On February 27, 2019, Gladness joined Portuguese team Benfica for the rest of the season. On December 8, 2019, he signed with

San-en NeoPhoenix The are a Japanese professional basketball team based in the eastern Mikawa Province, Mikawa and Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture region of central Japan, that competes in the B.League. The team was founded in 1965, as the company team of the OSG ...

of the B.League. On February 22, 2020, he signed with

Arka Gdynia Morski Związkowy Klub Sportowy Arka Gdynia () is a professional football club based in Gdynia, Poland, that plays in the Ekstraklasa after winning the 2024–25 I liga. The club was founded as Klub Sportowy Gdynia in 1929. History The h ...

of the

Polish Basketball League Polska Liga Koszykówki (PLK) (English language, English: Polish Basketball League), officially known as the Orlen Basket Liga due to its sponsorship by Orlen, is a professional men's club basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Poland. I ...

(PLK).

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

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Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

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NBL

Regular season

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Personal life

Gladness and his wife Adriana have two sons.From the NBA to NZ: No regrets for new Canterbury Ram Mickell Gladness
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References

External links

Early life

College career

Professional career

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

NBL

Regular season

Personal life

See also

References

External links