Merry Christmas, Jarron Cumberland.
It was announced on Christmas Day that Wilmington High School graduate Jarron Cumberland had been signed to a 10-day contract by the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. He will wear number 34.
The Blazers were scheduled to play the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night.
In Cumberland’s case, his deal falls in to the hardship exception category which means his spot on the team is a temporary roster spot that allows a team to exceed the 15-man maximum roster when it has at least four players who are sick or injured for longer than two weeks.
The move by the Blazers comes on the heels of Cumberland earning the NBA G-League AT&T Winter Showcase tournament MVP award. Cumberland led the Delaware Blue Coats to the event championship Wednesday night with 24 points, eight rebounds and six assists in the title game.
In the semifinal round, Cumberland posted a triple-double — 19 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists — in Delaware’s 122 to 108 win over the South Bay Lakers.
Cumberland was averaging just under 10 points per game this season for Delaware. He was shooting 44 percent from the floor, including 34 percent from the three-point arc. He has 46 rebounds, 36 assists and 14 steals this season.
Cumberland was the 12th pick overall in last season’s G League Draft by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. He was then traded to the Toronto G League team last season before being dealt to the Delaware team prior to the current season.
Cumberland led Wilmington High School to the Division I boys basketball state final four in 2016 and became Clinton County’s all-time leading scorer, a record broken last season by Blanchester’s Brayden Sipple.
An Ohio Mr. Basketball finalist and nominee for the prestigious McDonald’s All-America Award, he completed a decorated career at the University of Cincinnati.
At UC, Cumberland earned All-American Athletic Conference player of the year honors in 2019 and was honorable mention All-America in 2019. The 6-5 Cumberland was the American Athletic sixth man of the year as a freshman. He finished seventh on UC’s all-time scoring list with 1,782 points, after scoring 2,408 points in his high school career.
Cumberland also is seventh all-time on UC’s career assist list with 415. He joined Oscar Robertson, Steve Logan and Deonta Vaughn as the only players in UC history to have more than 1,700 career points and 400 career assists.
Cumberland’s conference awards throughout his career also include 2019 AAC Player of the Year, 2019 AAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player, 2019 First Team All-AAC selection (unanimous) and 2017 All-Rookie Team selection. He was named the AAC Player of the Week five times and tabbed to the AAC Weekly Honor Roll four times.
Cumberland graduated from UC and majored in Criminal Justice.
