Jim Cleamons

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]