The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

A PAIR of national basketball team players are on the move early in the offseason after they inked deals with new clubs in new countries.

Shaquille Cleare will make the transition to France’s Nationale Masculine 1 League this upcoming season, the third-tier division of club basketball in the country.

Cleare signed with SO Maritime Boulogne - the latest stop on his pro journey that now includes five clubs in four countries. They finished last season with a 13-13 record and were ranked No.8 in the standings for Group B. Last season, Cleare briefly joined fellow Bahamian national team member Travis Munnings at UD Oliveirense in Portugal’s Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol (LPB). In just six games with the club, he averaged 9.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game.

In the previous season, he played for Actel Forca Lleida in Spain’s Liga Española de Baloncesto – Gold, the second division in the country’s basketball system. In 24 games with the club, he averaged 11.3 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.

In his four-year professional career, he has also played in Mexico and Switzerland.

He suited up for the Tampico Huracanes in the Mexican LNBP league and averaged 11 points and 2.7 rebounds per game. Prior to Mexico, he was signed with BBC Lausanne of Championnat LNB League, the second-tier of pro basketball in Switzerland. In his first season of professional basketball, he averaged 12 points and seven rebounds per game.

Since returning to the Bahamas in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic brought an abrupt end to the season, Cleare reunited with his cousins, Micah and Christen Miller, as they worked on the creation of a company called Mo Charge Inc, which produces the Vertex 1 charger and is available at www.mocharge.com.

At the national team level, Cleare last appeared for Team Bahamas in their FIBA 2022 AmeriCup qualification bid. He finished with thriee points and two rebounds in a 76 - 59 win over Mexico in February 2020 at the Atlantis Resort.

He was also a member of Team Bahamas that finished second among Group Phase A at the AmeriCup 2021 Pre-Qualifiers, hosted in Belize City, Belize. The team concluded with a 2-1 record. He averaged 12 points and 5.8 rebounds through four games in the pre qualifiers aagainst Canada, the US Virgin Islands, and the Dominican Republic.

Following two seasons in Argentina, Tavario Miller is headed to Brazil’s Novo Basquete Brasil (NBB) afer he signed with Minas Belo Horizonte.

Last season, he spent 40 games with Boca Juniors in Argentina’s Liga Nacional de Básquet. He averaged 13.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game and helped the team advance to the semifinals. In the previous campaign, he played with Quimsa Santiago del Estero and in 21 games he averaged 10.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. He played an integral role in Quimsa winning the league’s pennant and finishing as the runners up in the final.

In 2019, he played with Union Athletic Club in Uruguay where in 10 games he averaged 16.9 points, 12.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.9 steals per game.

Miller also played in the Spanish LEB-Silver league with Grupo Eleyco Baskonia and in 33 games with the club, he averaged 11.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game.

He has also played professionally in Mexico and Norway (Fyllingen BBK). Miller’s team made it to the Norwegian BLNO Semifinals in 2018. He was also voted Eurobasket.com All-Norwegian BLNO 2nd Team in 2018.

At the national team level, he has regularly played for the senior men’s national team since 2015 and previously for U17 National Team back in 2011. Miller represented the Bahamas at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla (Colombia) last year and through five games averaged 6.6 points, 6.2 rebounds per contest. Like Cleare, he also last appeared for Team Bahamas in their FIBA 2022 AmeriCup qualification bid and averaged eight points and 4.5 rebounds per game against America and Puerto Rico.