College - Colorado
Max Benton started with the Cleveland Cavaliers as athletic trainer in July 2001.

As the Cavaliers’ athletic trainer, Benton tends to the immediate medical needs of the team's players. Most of his athletic training time is spent in the area of preventive medicine, treatment and rehabilitation.

He came to Cleveland following six seasons as the assistant athletic trainer for the Denver Nuggets. While working as the Nuggets’ assistant trainer, he also volunteered as an athletic trainer for the Denver Public School System.

A 1995 graduate of the University of Colorado (CU), Benton was a student assistant in the CU sports medicine department from 1990-95. He worked primarily with football, men’s basketball and men’s and women’s track. Benton was also a student intern for the Denver Broncos’ training staff for two years and received the Pro Football Athletic Trainers’ Ethnic Minority Scholarship in 1993.

While doing his undergraduate work, Benton served as a student intern for the Colorado Rockies orthopedic surgeon. He also taught a course in athletic training at CU as an undergraduate.

The native of Fort Collins, Colorado, is a certified member of the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA), the Ohio Athletic Trainers’ Association (OATA), the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and is also a Performance Enhancement Specialist (PES) and Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES).

Benton volunteered in August 2001 at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he worked with athletes from volleyball, wrestling, taekwondo and swimming. In March of 2003, Benton was selected to the USA Medical Staff for the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic where he helped the U.S. Boxing Team win one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

Benton has served two terms (2007-09) as the Eastern Conference representative for the National Basketball Athletic Trainers Association (NBATA). He also currently serves on the scholarship committee for the NBATA and the National Athletic Trainer Scholar, which gives scholarships to undergraduate, masters and doctorate students in the field of athletic training. During June 2008, Benton served as athletic trainer for Basketball Without Borders Europe, in Istanbul, Turkey. Since 2007, he has served as a mentor to Cleveland State’s men’s basketball team.

Benton and his wife, Jolynne, are the proud parents of Emma.