Career
A Dallas, Texas native, Spates played collegiately with the Northeastern University Huskies in Boston, Massachusetts from 2006 to 2009. With Northeastern, Spates averaged 7.5 points in 95 career games. In 2009, Spates signed with British Columbia Mess of Luxembourg where he averaged 34.6 points and 13.2 rebounds per game during the 2009-2010 season.
On November 1, 2010, he was selected by the Maine Red Claws in the seventh round of the 2010 National Basketball Association Development League Draft.
On February 14, 2011, he was traded to the Springfield Armor in exchange for Vernon Goodridge. In 52 games for Maine and Springfield in 2010-2011, he averaged 7.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.
He returned to the Armor for the 2011-2012 season and averaged 5.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in 34 games. In 2012, Spates joined Nuwaidrat of the Bahraini Premier League.
In 2013, he moved to Qatar where he joined First Rate (at Lloyd's) Gharafa Doha for the 2013-2014 season.
He then returned to Nuwaidrat for the 2014-2015 season.