Austin Croshere

1 Biography
- 1.1 External link
2 Statistics
3 References
4 Related Articles
- 4.1 Recent Austin Croshere ArmchairGM Stories

[edit] Biography

Picked No. 12 overall in the 1997 NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers.

Austin Nathan Croshere (born 1 May 1975 in Los Angeles, California) is a professional basketball player in the NBA. Following a career at Providence College, Croshere was the 12th pick of the 1997 NBA Draft, selected by the Indiana Pacers.

A 6'9", hard-nosed player who can play the power forward and small forward positions, Croshere has shot .343 from three-point range over the course of his nine-year career, thus far. He had the best year of his career in 1999-2000, peaking at just the right time as he helped the Pacers advance to the 2000 NBA Finals, marking the Pacers' first Finals appearance in franchise history.

He was rewarded for his performance in the regular season and particularly the playoffs with a hefty contract, which the Pacers soon learned to regret as lamentably, Austin never fully lived up to the promise he'd shown. In fairness to him, Pacers coach Isiah Thomas seldom used him during the three seasons he coached the team. Croshere played only 49 games in 2002-03, averaging a career-low 12.9 minutes per game that season as he fell out of the rotation.

Croshere became an important backup again during the Rick Carlisle years, and was a key contributor against the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals.

Overall, Croshere spent the first nine years of his NBA career with the Pacers, becoming only the fifth player to wear the Pacers' blue-and-gold for at least that long. (Reggie Miller, Rik Smits, Dale Davis and Vern Fleming are the other four).

On July 5 2006, Croshere was traded to the Dallas Mavericks for Marquis Daniels [1]. Croshere was the last Pacer remaining from the 1999-2000 Eastern Conference championship team.