Michigan State Spartans hall of fame legend Mateen Cleaves spoke publicly earlier this week, giving praise to his former college teammate and current boss, Mat Ishbia.
Cleaves joined former NBA stars Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on their podcast “All the Smoke” and discussed the experience he had playing alongside Ishbia and the mentorship that he received once the playing days were over.
“At a mid-major, he would’ve played. He just a little undersized, but Mat got game!”⁰@Mateen_Cleaves speaks on his special bond with former teammate & current Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia⁰
NEW episode of ALL THE SMOKE with the Michigan State legend: https://t.co/h0hG0q8xCH pic.twitter.com/lGGOpNLFFU— All the Smoke Productions (@allthesmokeprod) October 10, 2024
Ishbia was a walk-on point guard for head coach Tom Izzo and the Spartans during their historic run from 1999-2002, winning a national championship in 2000 and going to three Final Fours alongside Cleaves. Even with minimal playing time, Cleaves credited his teammate’s playing ability.
“He can hoop, Mat can play,” Cleaves said. “I always tell people, at Michigan State, it was pro’s. You had myself, Charlie Bell, Mo Pete [Morris Peterson], J-Rich [Jason Richardson] know what I mean? So Mat was a little undersized, but, at a mid-major, he would’ve played. He’s just a little undersized but Mat got game. Owners, can’t no owner [beat him], they ain’t even close, he’d kill all of them.”
Ishbia is now a billionaire businessman, CEO of mortgage lender, United Wholesale Mortgage, and majority owner of the Phoenix Suns in the NBA and the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA.
In 2019, Cleaves was hired by his former teammate at United Wholesale Mortgage as a leadership development coach. Two years later, he was promoted to command the leadership team and has been with the organization ever since.
“He’s such a real one,” Cleaves said. “He came and got me when a lot of people scattered; he came like, ‘let’s roll, I got a good thing going, I want you to be a part of it.’ That’s my little brother, man, and he’d always been talking to me about getting in the mortgage industry and doing stuff, and I’m like ‘mortgages? That doesn’t seem fun.’ He’s such a visionary; what he started was a leadership development team at his company, UWM, [United Wholesale Mortgage]. We are the No. 1 overall lender in America. So, we winning again, but his vision was, ‘I want you to come to my company and help lead my leaders. I want you to show our leaders how to get the best out of other people.’”
Quite ironic, Cleaves was a mentor to Ishbia during the Spartans’ dynasty run and the soon-to-be billionaire returned the favor nearly 25 years later. There is a special bond between these two and it reflects the relationships that have been formed in East Lansing.
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