Orlando Coleman
Marcus Orlando Coleman Jr (born September 9, 1992 in Birmingham) is a basketball coach and former professional basketball player.
Coleman, the son of Marcus and Chanty Coleman, grew up in Ensley's Tuxedo Court public housing community, and swam and played basketball at the McAlpine Park Recreation Center. For grade school he moved to Homewood Junior High School, but failed to make the 8th grade basketball team. He practiced over the summer, and grew 5 inches taller, and emerged as a contributor to the junior varsity team at Homewood High School. During the summers he practiced with an Amateur Athletic Union squad.
Coleman transferred to Pleasant Grove High School as a sophomore and eventually emerged on the varsity team alongside guard Ricky Tarrant. He began his college career at Alabama Southern Community College in Monroeville, Monroe County. From 2013 to 2015 he played at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. He played his senior season for Mike Davis at Texas Southern University in Houston, where he averaged 6.4 points and 4 rebounds per game on an NCAA Tournament team.
Coleman was not selected in the 2016 NBA Draft. Davis and assistant coach John Lucas put him in touch with an agent and after a solid camp in Las Vegas he was signed to the KW Titans of NBL Canada while he completed his master's in health and human performance at Texas Southern. In the spring, he played with Centauros de Chihuahua and Caballeros de Culiacán of Mexico's CIBACOPA. In 2017 he signed with KK SPD Radnički of the Basketball League of Serbia.
In 2018 Coleman played with New Zealand's National Basketball League championship winning Southland Sharks. He signed later that year with Jászberényi KSE in Hungary's Nemzeti Bajnokság I/A league and was recognized as the league's Player of the Year. In 2019 he was traded to Atomerőmű SE. In 2020 he played for a brief period with Maccabi Kiryat Motzkin of the Israeli National League.
Coleman returned to Jászberény in 2021 and finished the season as the league's top scorer with 25 points per game, along with 6.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists. In June of that year he made his debut with Apollon Patras of the Greek Basket League, and averaged 17.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists over 9 games.
In January 2022 Coleman signed with Champagne Châlons-Reims in France's LNB Pro B division. He also played for BC Enisey in Russia's VTB United League and with Guaros de Lara in Venezuela. He rejoined Apollon Patras in January 2024 for another 9 games.
Coleman stepped away from playing with the birth of his second daughter, and began coaching youth at McAlpine Park and working on developing a charitable foundation and sportswear brand under the "DreaMentali" banner.
References
- "Orlando Coleman." (October 26, 2024) Wikipedia - accessed March 27, 2025
- Crenshaw, Solomon Jr (March 19, 2025) "Orlando Coleman: Business, Basketball and Back Home Where it all Began." The Birmingham Times