Steven Leven (born 15 October 1982) is an Australian-British 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. He was a

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game ...

small forward The small forward (SF), also known as the three, is one of the five Basketball position, positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than Power forward (basketball), power forwards and Cent ...

Early life

Leven was born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. He was raised by a single mother and grew up in the suburb of

Airds Airds is a predominantly residential suburb of Campbelltown. Houses within the suburb are owned by Housing NSW. The land and houses are being sold off to a company and the area redeveloped to build private housing. Public Housing will only be a ...

. He moved to the United States as a teenager and attended Newport School in

Kensington, Maryland Kensington is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland, Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The population was 2,122 at the 2020 United States census. Greater Kensington encompasses the entire 20895 ZIP Code, ZIP code, with a population of 1 ...

, and Laurinburg Institute in

Laurinburg, North Carolina Laurinburg is a city in and the county seat of Scotland County, North Carolina, United States. Located in southern North Carolina near the South Carolina border, Laurinburg is southwest of Fayetteville, North Carolina, Fayetteville and is home t ...

College career

Leven 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 the

Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) a ...

in 2002–03. He left the program after one season due to Auburn being found guilty of NCAA violations. In the spring of 2003, Leven transferred to the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming, United States. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, ...

. He subsequently sat out the 2003–04 season due to NCAA transfer regulations. With the

Wyoming Cowboys The Wyoming Cowboys and Cowgirls are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Wyoming, located in Laramie, Wyoming, Laramie. Wyoming is a member of the Mountain West Conference (MW) and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding 17 ...

in 2004–05, Leven averaged 8.5 points per game. In the 2005–06 season, he averaged 11.7 points per game.

Professional career

Leven's first professional stint came after signing with the

Perth Wildcats The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Wildcats compete in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Perth Arena, ...

of the Australian National Basketball League in 2006. He never debuted for the Wildcats. For the second half of the 2006–07 season, he played for Oberelchingen in the German

ProB The ProB is the German basketball league system, third-tier level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 24 teams, separated into a Northern and a Southern Division. Officially, the ProB is part of ...

. In nine games, he averaged 28 points per game. Leven began the 2007–08 season practicing with Spanish team Unicaja. On 25 January 2008, he joined Icelandic team Snæfell. However, on 1 February 2008, he left Iceland before debuting and joined the

Newcastle Eagles The Newcastle Eagles are a professional basketball club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. They play in Super League Basketball, the top-tier professional basketball league in Britain for men and women, and the European North Basketball Leag ...

of the

British Basketball League The British Basketball League (BBL) was a men's professional basketball sports league, league in Great Britain. Since its establishment in 1987 the BBL represented the highest level of basketball competition within the United Kingdom. The orga ...

(BBL). In 17 games, he averaged 16.2 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game. Leven initially signed with Greek club Kavala/Panorama for the 2008–09 season, but never debuted for them and left due to their financial problems. He later joined Dutch team

West-Brabant Giants West-Brabant Giants was a Dutch professional basketball club based in Bergen op Zoom. The club was established in 2003 and dissolved in 2011. The team played its games at Sporthal de Boulevard and its main colors were red and white. History The cl ...

in March 2009. In 16 games to finish the season, he averaged 7.9 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. In the 2009–10 season, Leven played for the Tees Valley Mohawks of the English Basketball League (EBL). In 15 games, he averaged 23.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.3 steals per game. Leven initially signed with Greek club SEFA Arkadikos for the 2010–11 season, but never debuted for them and left due to their financial problems.

National team career

Leven represented the British national team in 2008 and 2009.

Software company and accusations of false credentials

In 2019, Leven co-founded a Sydney-based software company called Zenbly. The company was placed into administration and liquidated in 2022. As a result of the turbulent end to his company, Leven's credentials and documents were scrutinised. He was accused of falsifying his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

, supposedly from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

for applied

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. Columbia University reportedly claimed it has no record of Leven's attendance. Leven had also claimed to be a member of a United Nations association for artificial intelligence, to which this also reportedly was not true. He also reportedly claimed to have a bachelor of arts in business administration from the University of Wyoming, along with a bachelor of science in information science from the same institution. However, despite attending the University of Wyoming when he was a basketball player, there is no record of him completing his degree.

Personal life

Leven has joint Australian-Scottish citizenship.

References

External links

Wyoming Cowboys college bioDraftExpress.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leven, Steve 1982 births Living people Auburn Tigers men's basketball players Australian expatriate basketball people in Germany Australian expatriate basketball people in the Netherlands Australian expatriate basketball people in the United Kingdom Australian expatriate basketball people in the United States Australian men's basketball players Australian people of Scottish descent Basketball players from Sydney Newcastle Eagles players Shooting guards Small forwards Sportsmen from New South Wales Wyoming Cowboys basketball players 21st-century Australian sportsmen