Ex-Michigan State hoops star Cleaves orders up a full-court press behind Flint rapper’s career

Ex-hoops star Cleaves ‘all in’ behind Flint rapper

GRAND BLANC, Mich. — Athletics wasn’t Jon Connor’s thing growing up.

Music was.

Now, though, sports might end up being the Flint rapper’s ticket to the big time.

A couple of years back, Connor caught the eye of Mateen Cleaves, the former Flint prep standout, All-America point guard and first-round NBA draft pick.

The two started hanging out, and eventually Cleaves agreed to come aboard as Connor’s manager.

“I’m all in with this,” Cleaves says.

So are the ex-Michigan State hoops star’s friends.

Lions linebacker Julian Peterson, also a former Spartan, is going to hand out Connor’s latest CD, “The Calling, Pt. 2,” to his Detroit teammates.

Cleaves, who won the NCAA championship with the Spartans in 2000, also has current members of the Michigan State basketball team listening to Connor. He brought his protege to Spartan Stadium on Oct. 3 for the football game against Michigan. They sat with Spartans hoops coach Tom Izzo.

It’s all part of Cleaves’ strategy to get Connor’s music “in people’s ears.”

“Our whole focus right now is trying to create a buzz — getting him heard, getting him in front of people, getting him some shows,” Cleaves said during an interview at his health club outside Flint.

Cleaves, 32, who earned millions as a member of the Pistons, Kings, Cavaliers and Sonics, even knocked on car windows on Detroit’s Belle Isle and handed out Connor CDs to anyone who would accept them.

Those who know him say Cleaves is as fired up about his new career as he was about his old one.

“He’s showing all 32 teeth when he talks about Jon Connor,” Peterson says. “He is as excited about this as he was when they won the national championship.”

Connor, like so many others in his hometown, grew up idolizing Cleaves, Morris Peterson and the other “Flintstones” who starred on the city’s high school courts, at Michigan State and beyond.

Hooking up with the man he calls “Big Bro” has been a surreal experience for the 24-year-old rapper, who describes his music as “Coldplay meets Jay-Z meets Kanye meets ’70s soul. … It’s all over the place.”

“It was really crazy — one, for him to like my music (and), two, me meeting him, because you always see him, and it’s like, ‘Wow. Mateen.’ But it was a beautiful thing,” Connor says. “The more we got to hang and chill with each other and seeing how much of a positive person he was and I’m a positive person, we just jelled. … It was the coolest.”

The idea of getting back into the rap game didn’t appeal much to Cleaves — who had invested in some acts previously to no avail — until he saw Connor two years ago at a Flint nightclub.

There were only about a dozen people in the place, but this “kid was performing like he was on stage in front of thousands of people,” Cleaves says.

“He just captured me, watching him on stage. It was phenomenal.”

For a while, Cleaves helped Connor from time to time. Then, while hanging out at Connor’s house one day, the two decided to formalize their arrangement with Cleaves coming on board as co-CEO of his friend’s All Varsity Entertainment venture.

Ever since, Cleaves has been working his connections from the sports world and having Connor play as many shows as possible. He’s played Flint, Detroit, Lansing, Bay City, Saginaw and Pontiac in Michigan and even had a show in Los Angeles at a launch party for a clothing line by the then-girlfriend of Phoenix Suns guard Jason Richardson, another former Michigan State player.

Their ultimate goal is a record deal with a major label.

Cleaves says a few record companies have called him about Connor, but no offer’s come in yet.

“We really think that Jon is good enough right now to go in and get a deal. Right now. But we want to set ourselves up for THE deal,” Cleaves says.

Both men say they’re supremely confident it’s going to happen.

“When I was coming up and I was so focused on making it to the NBA, (it) is just like him being so focused on being one of the best and getting Grammys,” Cleaves says. “You got so many people telling you, ‘It’s only one in a million that can do that.’ We laugh. We’re gonna be that one in a million.”

AP Sports Writer Larry Lage in Allen Park, Mich., contributed to this report.

On the Net:

Jon Connor: www.jonconnormusic.com