The Cleveland Cavaliers went to a lot of trouble to land Antawn Jamison.

Not a lot of expense, trouble.  (Or, maybe trouble and expense . . . if you’re either a die-hard Darnell Jackson fan, or were really looking forward to seeing what long, long-lens international project Danny Ferry had in mind for this year’s late first round draft pick.)

In a week and a half, Zydrunas Ilgauskas will be able to return to the Cavs . . . and at that point, Ferry’s devilish choreography will have played itself out perfectly.  No alarms and no surprises.

It looks so clean now, but Ferry and the Cavs’ front office worked feverishly to meticulously line up all the dominoes to make the complicated Jamison for (essentially) nothing rally work out as planned.

So now that we got this guy . . . and he’s played 10 games in a Cleveland uniform . . . and that Z has announced his intention to return . . . it’s finally time to ask:  

Just who is this dude?

Antawn Jamison, The Early Years.

Antawn Cortez Jamison was born June 12th, 1976, in Shreveport, Louisiana.  (He was conceived roughly nine months prior to that.)  His family named him Antwan (pronounced like “Antoine”), but because of a typo on his birth certificate, his name was spelled “A-n-t-a-w-n”.

It’s unclear whose fault that was . . . or what they were drinking when they made the mistake . . . but regardless, the spelling was never corrected.  Wikipedia claims that’s because Antawn’s family felt the misspelling made him more, quote, “distinctive.”  (It’s still pronounced like “Antwan” or “Antoine”.)

Distinctive or not, the constant misspellings / mispronounciations were a living hell for Antawn.  So much so, that when his firstborn son was born in December of 2006 . . . and he decided to make him a “junior” . . . he fixed it.

Regarding Antwan Cortez Jamison Jr., Antawn has said:  “I just didn’t want him to go through what I went through.  So we made life easier on him.”

Antawn . . . the one with the misspelled name . . . later moved and grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina.  He played basketball in school (obviously) and was named a McDonald’s All-American during his senior season.  It was one of the most patriotic-sounding achievements of his high school career.

In North Carolina, Antawn’s dad, a carpenter, installed a basketball hoop at their home.  But it wasn’t perfect.  Instead of being 10 feet high it was actually closer to 11 feet.  And supposedly, that may have contributed to Jamison’s somewhat odd shooting form.

In a bio on Antawn’s website, his mother lets us in on a little secret:  Antawn is a strict, hardcore vegan!  Just kidding.  He loves junk food.  She writes:

“People might not know this, but Antawn is a major junk food addict!  He was and is always still eating junk food.  He used to get candy, cookies and honey buns and hide them in his room under his bed.  Eating junk food was his only hobby other than playing basketball.”

Oh, and one more thing.  She also pinpoints the year in which Antawn went through puberty . . . you know, in case you were curious:

“Antawn was a very big kid growing up.  He was always the tallest kid in his class and usually one of the skinniest.   He was a very fat baby though!  He was so chubby.  When he was about three he thinned out and has been skinny since then.  He probably hit his first big growth spurt when he was 12 years old.  When he was in the ninth grade, he really started growing.”

His mother is sweet for writing this bio on his site.  And Antawn is sweet for letting her.

Antawn Jamison, The College Years.

Antawn had a successful college career, playing three years at the University of North Carolina.

But it almost didn’t happen that way.  The girl Antawn was dating in high school got into the feminist studies program at Oberlin College in Ohio and tried to get him to come with her.  Antawn considered it, and looked into Oberlin’s basketball program, which was Division III ball in the always competitive North Coast Athletic Conference . . . but ultimately passed on the opportunity.

[That's a joke, of course.  No offense to Oberlin Men's Basketball.]

Seriously, it sounds like he chose UNC pretty early on . . . while he was sorting through all kinds of recruitment letters from all kinds of colleges.  (It’s unclear if Oberlin bothered to send a flyer out, but it’d have been mildly amusing if they did.)

In his three college seasons, he averaged 19.0 points and 9.9 rebounds per game.  His Tar Heels made it into the NCAA Tournament all three years . . . and in the latter two they made it to the Final Four.

Antawn decided to leave after his junior season to enter the NBA draft.

Antawn Jamison, The NBA Years.

Antawn was selected by the Toronto Raptors at #4 in the first round of the 1998 NBA Draft.  Since you’re probably curious, he was behind Michael Olowokandi (L.A. Clippers), Mike Bibby (Vancouver Grizzlies), and Raef LaFrentz (Denver Nuggets), who were selected #1, #2, #3, respectively.

Beneath him, were:  His former UNC teammate Vince Carter at #5 (Golden State Warriors), Robert “Tractor” Traylor at #6 (Dallas Mavericks to the Milwaukee Bucks), Jason Williams at #7 (Sacramento Kings), Larry Hughes at #8 (Philadelphia 76ers), Dirk Nowitzki at #9 (Milwaukee to Dallas), and Paul Pierce at #10 (Boston Celtics).

Man, the lottery teams haven’t changed much in the past 12 years.

Antawn and Vince were traded for each other, so Antawn landed in Oakland.

Antawn spent five years in Golden State . . . a few of them alongside his future Washington Wizards teammate, Gilbert Arenas.  (Who, you know, is probably the dude who we can thank for Jamison being available to Cleveland at a clearance price.)

There’s not much to say about his time with the Warriors, which is typical of any player who has ever spent time with Golden State.

There was one significant highlight.  In December of 2000, Antawn scored 51 points in two consecutive games, the first was against the Seattle Supersonics and the other was versus the Los Angeles Lakers.  Only two other players have scored 50+ points in back-to-back games in the past 15 years:  Kobe Bryant in 2007 and Allen Iverson in 2004.

In 2003, he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks, where he spent one season.  He came off the bench . . . and was given the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award.  The Mavericks lost in the first round of the playoffs that year.

After that season, he was traded to the Washington Wizards where he spent five-and-a-half seasons before being traded to the Cavaliers last month.  While in Washington, Antawn became a two-time All-Star, and went to the second round of the playoffs once . . . in 2004-2005 . . . before being knocked out of the first round the following three consecutive years by LeBron and the Cavaliers.

Here are a few other random notes from Jamison’s NBA career:

*** In 11 1/2 seasons, Jamison has averaged 19+ points ten times, with his highest scoring total, 24.9 points per game, coming in 2000-2001.  For his career, he’s averaging 19.9 points per game.

*** He’s averaged at least 8.0 rebounds over the past five seasons, with his highest rebounding total, 10.2 rebounds per game, coming in 2007-2008.  For his career, he’s averaging 8.1 rebounds per game.

*** His highest shooting percentage (53.5%) came in 2003-2004.  For his career, he’s averaging 45.6%.  His highest 3-point shooting percentage (40.0%) came in 2003-2004.  For his career, he’s at 34.8%.  His highest free throw percentage (78.9%) came in 2002-20003.  For his career, he’s averaging 73%.

*** In 11 1/2 seasons, he’s played in all 82 regular season games five times, most recently in 2005-2006.  Over the past four seasons, he’s averaging 78 games played.

*** For his career, he’s averaging 1.7 assists, 1.1 steals, 0.4 blocks and 1.7 turnovers per game.

*** He’s listed at 6-foot-9, 235 pounds.

*** And here’s a portion of his scouting report, courtesy of ESPN’s John Hollinger.

“If Jamison has a weakness, it’s his defense.  He’s a disinterested help defender who rarely blocks shots or takes charges, and quicker forwards beat him off the dribble easily because his lateral movement isn’t great.  He does a decent job on the boards and doesn’t foul, but he needs to be paired with a big, tough center to hide his shortcomings.

“Offensively, he’s the best player in the league at catching and shooting quickly in the paint.  Jamison rarely dribbles;  he just makes hard cuts off the ball, catches and floats in a quick flip.  He can do this even with his back to the basket.

“He also has 3-point range on his jumper.  Even though he’s a low-mistake player, Jamison rarely sets up easy shots for others because he almost never penetrates off the dribble.”

Antawn Jamison, Cleveland Cavalier.

In his first 10 games as a Cavalier, Antawn is averaging 17.0 points, 7.5 rebounds (1.3 offensive), 1.6 assists, 1.7 steals, 0.6 blocks and 1.8 turnovers per game.  He’s shooting 48.3% from the field, 38.9% from beyond the arc, and a Shaq-esque 47.4% from the stripe.  (That’s 18-of-38, if you’re curious.)

And for what it’s worth, he’s notched a double-double in three of the 10 games.

He’s started eight of the 10 games, and is averaging 33.7 minutes.

He also has some injury problems, which we were reminded of on Monday . . . when Antawn left the Spurs game four minutes into the third quarter with stiffness in his knee.

An MRI didn’t turn up anything new, and as of early Thursday morning he was listed as day-to-day . . . and as a gametime decision for tomorrow’s faceoff in Philadelphia . . . but it sounds like the team will hold him out.

Antawn said:

“[A] little cyst in the back of my knee has some fluid in it.  No surgery is involved.  I know my body.  It’s something that occurred early in the season and after proper treatment, it went away.  I don’t see it lingering.  I’m not a young buck anymore.  I’m getting a little old.  It’s nothing serious as far as surgery.

“They want me to take it slow and not rush anything.  [They want me to] take the proper precautions.  If it was a big game, I’d definitely be ready to play.”

He said it was a “no-brainer” that he’d play in Sunday’s game against the Boston Celtics.

Back in February, in his first press conference in Cleveland, Antawn talked about how he’s hungry for a championship.  He said:

“I’ve never won a championship, whether it was college, high school.  I’ve been to All-Star games, I’ve experienced a lot of things.  There’s only one thing left for me to achieve.  It’s the one thing that keeps me going, it’s the one thing that drives me night in and night out.  I said to myself, ‘It’s going to happen before I retire.’  I don’t have another five to 10 years left in this body.  I’m just blessed to be put in this situation.

“People always say, ‘Good things happen to good people,’ and that’s definitely a fact right now.  I felt I’ve done things the right way and this is a great situation for me.  I love what I do.  I want to be the best.  I want to hold that trophy up and be a part of something very special.”

I love that.

Jamison, who’s 33 years old, is signed for two more years after this one.  He’s making $11.6 million this year . . . and will make $13.4 million next year and $15.1 million in 2011-2012.  He has said he plans on retiring when this current contract is up.

Oh, and one more thing:

If you type “Antawn Jamison” into a Google search bar, the first automated “guess” Google makes is “Antawn Jamison trade rumors.”

Cool.

What’s interesting though is that the second “guess” on the list is “Antawn Jamison wife.”  (?)  I was curious, so I clicked through.

Since everyone seems to be interested, here’s what I learned:

Antawn is married to a beautiful woman named Ione.  They have three children together, Kathryn, Antwan Jr. (a.k.a. A.J.), and Rucker.

[Two of them are pictured with her in this photo.  This photo, from 2007, was taken before the third child . . . another boy . . . was born.]

He also has another daughter, Alexis, from a previous relationship.

So far, Antawn has fit in pretty well with Cleveland’s offensive and defensive sets.  It won’t all be a walk in the park . . . few things are (even walks in the park, these days) . . . but he’ll pick up more of Coach Mike Brown’s base defensive requirements, and will provide some solid finesse scoring from the power forward spot, which will be a nice complement to Shaquille O’Neal (when he returns) and the emerging J.J. Hickson.

Let’s hope Antawn and the Cavs can win their first championships . . . together.