Manny Harris
Corperryale Lādorable "Manny" Harris is an American professional basketball player for Al Riyadi Beirut of the Lebanese Basketball League. He has previously played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association, and is a former All-Big Ten Conference guard who played three seasons for the Michigan Wolverines.
He decided to forgo his final year of collegiate eligibility and declare himself eligible for the 2010 NBA draft, but went undrafted. He signed with the Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association. He began his second year injured and rehabbed for two months in the NBA D-League with Cavaliers' affiliate, the Canton Charge, before being re-signed by the Cavaliers. He signed with BC Azovmash of Ukraine in September 2012 and spent 2012–13 playing in the Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague. For the following two seasons he split time in the NBA, NBA D-League and in the Turkish Basketball Super League. He is an NBA D-League All-star and six-time D-League performer of the week. He has set single-game scoring records for the Legends, Charge and D-Fenders franchises.
At Michigan, he was a 2008–09 first team All-Big Ten Conference selection, a 2007–08 second team All-Big Ten selection and a 2009–10 third team All-Big Ten selection. Harris also earned Big Ten Academic All-Conference honors as both a sophomore and a junior after the 2008–09 and 2009–10 Big Ten Conference regular seasons. Harris began the 2009–10 NCAA Division I men's basketball season by recording the second triple double in school history.
Harris previously attended Redford High School in Detroit, Michigan, where he won the state's Mr. Basketball award as a senior. Harris is one of only five Big Ten Conference basketball players to have finished in the top ten in the conference in scoring, rebounding, and assist average in the same season and prior to Evan Turner's 2009–10 season, Harris' 2008–09 season was the only time a player had finished in the top six of all three categories.
High school
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Harris was a 2005 Class A All-State fifth team selection as a sophomore by The Detroit News. He was an Associated Press Class A All-State first team selection in each of the next two seasons. Harris was selected as the 2007 Mr. Basketball of Michigan. That season he led the Redford to the Michigan High School Athletic Association Class A championship game, which it lost to Saginaw High School. During his high school basketball career, he became the first player to start for three consecutive Detroit Public School League championship teams since Jalen Rose and Voshon Lenard had done so from 1989 to 1991. At Redford, Harris once recorded 52 points and 15 rebounds. During the 2006–07 season, his last at Redford, Harris averaged 33.5 points, 11.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists. Harris was highly recruited, receiving offers from Tennessee, UCLA, Wisconsin, George Washington, and Indiana before committing to the University of Michigan. He was ranked by Rivals.com as the sixth-best shooting guard in the country in the 2007 high school class, while Scout.com ranked him the twelfth-best shooting guard. ESPN ranked him #7, but they listed him as a point guard. When Michigan announced that it would replace Tommy Amaker with John Beilein as head coach, Harris was initially unsure if he would honor his signed letter of intent, but when Michigan re-signed assistant coach Mike Jackson, he again decided to attend the school.College career
Freshman year
Prior to the 2007–08 basketball season, Freshman Harris was selected as a second team pre-season All-Big Ten Conference selection. He started every game for the 2007–08 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team. He scored 13 points and tallied 4 steals in his debut on November 9 against. After the 2007–08 NCAA basketball season, Harris was selected as a second team All-Big Ten Conference selection and an All-Freshman team selection. He led the Wolverines in scoring, assists, steals, minutes and free throw percentage. Among his highlights during the season were being named to the Great Alaska Shootout tournament team, becoming the fourth U-M freshman to score over 500 points in first season, and setting the U-M freshman record for free throws made in a season while playing at least 20 minutes and starting every game. During the season, he keyed the first three-game winning streak of the season for the team, which earned him his first Big Ten Player of the Week Award.Sophomore year
As a 2008–09 first team pre-season All-Big Ten player, he was the first Wolverine to earn the honor since Daniel Horton in 2004. Although he was the leading returning scorer and top draft prospect, Purdue's Robbie Hummel was named Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year. Preseason All-Big Ten status has not always led to regular season honors. In both 2005 and 2007, only two preseason selections made the regular season team. Harris opened the 2008–09 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball season with a career-high 30 points in a 77–55 victory over Michigan Tech on November 11. The following night in the second game of the Coaches vs. cancer classic, Harris nearly posted a triple double when he posted 26 points, and career-highs with 10 rebounds and 8 assists in a 76–56 win against Northeastern University. This quick start earned Harris the November 17, 2008 Big Ten Player of the Week Award. Harris led the Big Ten Conference in scoring until the second to last game of the preconference schedule when he snapped a ten-game double digit scoring streak. Throughout the season, he continued to battle with fellow sophomores Evan Turner and Talor Battle for the Big Ten scoring leadership. On February 5, Harris was selected along with Kalin Lucas as one of only two Big Ten John R. Wooden Award 2008–09 Midseason Top 30 Candidates. On March 5, the National Association of Basketball Coaches honored Harris as a District 7 first-team selection along with four other sophomores. On March 9 after the conclusion of the 2008–09 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season, he was named to the first team All-Big Ten by both the Big Ten coaches and the Big Ten media along with the same four sophomores. He was also chosen on March 10 by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association for its 2008–09 Men's Division I District V Team, based on voting from its national membership. On March 26 Harris was honored as one of four Michigan men's basketball Winter Sports Big Ten Academic All-Conference selections.Harris, at 86.3%, was NCAA free throw shooting percentage champion. Harris led the Wolverines in points, minutes, assists and steals. Additionally, Harris finished one behind teammate DeShawn Sims for the team leadership rebounds. In the Big Ten, Harris ranked first in free throw percentage, first in free throws made, second in points per game, fifth in assists per game, and sixth in rebounds per game. Harris and Evan Turner were the only Big Ten players to finish in the conference's top 10 in total points, rebounds, assists, and steals. They are the 4th and 5th players in conference history to finish in the top ten in average points, rebounds, and assists since assists became a statistic in 1983–84. Of these five, Harris was the only one to finish in the top six in each stat prior to Turner's 2009–10 season.
Junior year
Entering the 2009–10 NCAA Division I men's basketball season for the 2009–10 Wolverines, Harris was named to the FOX Sports preseason All-American list included him on its second team. Harris and Sims were named among the 50 preseason Wooden Award watch list nominees. Harris was also named to the preseason Naismith College Player of the Year watchlist. The 24-member Big Ten media panel selected Harris as a first team preseason All-Big Ten team member.Harris opened the season by recording the second triple double in school history against Division II Northern Michigan. This earned him his third Big Ten player of the week honor. Harris was suspended prior to the January 23 game against #13 Purdue due to unsportsmanlike conduct in one of the team's practices. Harris was named as a finalist for the 2010 Bob Cousy Award and a Midseason Top-30 finalist for the 2010 John Wooden Award. At the conclusion of the regular season, he was named a third-team All-Big Ten selection by both the conference coaches and the media. He was recognized as an All-District second-team selection by the National Association of Basketball Coaches making him eligible for the State Farm Division I All‐America teams. Since the Big Ten Conference was its own district, this is equivalent to being named second team All-Big Ten by the NABC. Harris concluded his junior season with 484 free throws made. Cazzie Russell holds the official Michigan career record with 486 with Louis Bullock's 505 total having been vacated due to the University of Michigan basketball scandal. He joined Jalen Rose and Mike McGee as the only Wolverines to amass 1600 points over a three-year period. Harris finished the season among the Big Ten Conference leaders in several statistical categories including: fourth in scoring, tenth in rebounds, fifth in assists, seventh in free throw percentage, second in steals, and eighth in minutes played.
2010 NBA draft
On March 29, Harris held a press conference in which he announced his intentions to enter the NBA draft. Multiple draft outlets ranked Harris as likely to be drafted in the 2nd round or go undrafted. Two days after the announcement, Harris was recognized as an Academic All-Conference performer again. Harris suffered a hamstring injury shortly before the draft, which hampered his draft workouts and draft potential. Harris was undrafted in the 2010 NBA draft.College statistics
Professional career
Cleveland Cavaliers (2010–2011)
Harris played for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Summer League in 2010. He saw limited action due to the same ankle injury that impaired his draft status. After being an undrafted player from Michigan for about 3 months, Harris joined the Cleveland Cavaliers with a #6 jersey number as a non-guaranteed free agent member of the 20-man preseason roster. Harris made the final roster. He made his debut on October 29 against the Toronto Raptors in which he scored 8 points. Harris' agent is Henry Thomas. After compiling a 7–14 record in the first 21 games, head coach Byron Scott shuffled the lineup on December 8, and Harris played twenty-one minutes that night.On December 29, Harris made his first start when Mo Williams was recovering from an injury and Harris earned the surprise start instead of Ramon Sessions, scoring 8 points. In his fourth start on January 7 against the Golden State, Harris posted his first double-double with career highs of 16 points and 10 rebounds and added 3 steals and 4 assists, too. Then, on January 9, he posted a new career-high 27 points against the Phoenix Suns. With the return of Daniel Gibson and Anthony Parker to the lineup he saw little action until February 23.
Harris was waived by the Cavaliers on December 22, 2011. The transaction came as the 2011–12 Cavaliers made their final cuts from 17 to 15 players. The move, which surprisingly left Mychel Thompson on the roster, was attributed to a freezer burn that Harris suffered on his foot during the 2011 NBA lockout in a cooling chamber designed to augment recuperation from injuries at the Nike facility in Oregon.