Croshere Shines With His Career at a Crossroads

INDIANAPOLIS — When Austin Croshere’s name came up in the draft, the Lakers wanted him.

We didn’t get him.

Yes, we. It was 1986, I was an assistant coach in the Biddy Basketball League at the Santa Monica Boys Club, and our team was called the Lakers. Croshere went to the Blazers--who had the distinction of having the uniforms that looked most like their NBA namesakes.

Croshere was a skinny, 11-year-old kid who was pretty good. I wish I could tell you that I knew he would be a standout player in high school, that one day he would lead Crossroads to a CIF Southern Section championship.

I wish I could tell you I knew he would play for a Big East college and his school would make it to the regional finals of the NCAA tournament.

I wish I could tell you I knew he would be a first-round NBA draft pick. And that one day, when the Lakers played the Indiana Pacers in the NBA finals and Laker players said, “He’s killing us,” or, “He’s dominating,” they would be talking about Austin Croshere and not Reggie Miller.

But no one could have predicted this much success for Croshere. To see how far he has come, to try to grasp it all is even a bit beyond Croshere’s comprehension.

“If you had told me going into the season that I would be playing 25 minutes a game in the NBA finals . . .” he said. “Not that I wouldn’t believe it, but that would be an absolute best-case scenario.

“Maybe things have happened a little bit quicker, but at the same time I feel I’ve paid my price by sitting and watching for two years.”

Croshere always paid the price, and that’s how he got here.

“The two things that would have led me to believe that he wouldn’t make it in the NBA were that, one, I didn’t know if he’d be strong enough, and two, if his feet would be fast enough,” said Paul Cummins, the Crossroads founder and former headmaster. “In high school he kind of lumbered up and down the court.

“The thing about him is, he’s just the hardest worker you could imagine.”

The only blessing came in the form of a growth spurt that took him from 6 feet at the start of ninth grade to 6-9 at the start of 11th grade.

The rest was extra time spent shooting jumpers. Extra hours put in with the coaching staff at Providence. And when that didn’t translate into immediate success in the NBA, he made the extra commitment to bulk up his body and improve his speed by training with former UCLA track and field athlete Milan Teff and attending Pete Newell’s big man camp over the summer.

The Pacers traded Antonio Davis for Jonathan Bender, a first-round pick straight out of high school, leaving Croshere as the main reserve forward.

Now he has gone from a guy who hardly played in his first two seasons to a key factor in the most important games of the season.

He dropped 16 points on the Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA finals and came back with 24 in Game 2, with his family and Cummins watching at Staples Center.

He scored 12 in the Pacers’ victory Sunday, including a key basket when he took a loose ball away from Rick Fox and Robert Horry and scored to give Indiana a six-point lead with 2:30 to play.

He has been one of the toughest matchups for the Lakers, an unexpected problem. He scores inside against players such as Fox and shoots three-pointers or drives around taller players such as Horry.

Oh, and Croshere just happens to become a free agent this summer. Can you say, Cha-ching!?

It might seem too good to be true for a guy who grew up in Lakerland, who used to sit in the cheap seats at the Forum (“I always remember sitting above the scoreboard and looking down,” he said). Except he’s too busy handling his business.

“I think, maybe when the season’s over and I have time maybe looking back on it . . . probably,” Croshere said when asked if he thinks of the magnitude of it all. “But at this point I’ve just got to worry about the time at hand.”

That didn’t keep Jalen Rose from recognizing a natural story and trying to promote it.

“Pub my man up in L.A.!” Rose said as he walked by. “You’ve got to give him some love.”

Croshere still has love for L.A. He lives in a Santa Monica condominium during the off-season. He drops casual Southern California references during interview sessions, mentioning summer workouts at SMC as if reporters from New York and Chicago and Louisville would all know that’s Santa Monica College.

He did go on about the difference in cultures, how people in L.A. are obsessed with stars and the stars are obsessed with their public appearances, while what few famous faces there are in Indiana (such as Pacer Coach Larry Bird) simply lead their lives normally.

The Indianapolis social scene is a little slow, he admits, but that’s fine for him because it lets him concentrate on work.

Time for the true test of his L.A. roots: Does he like the popular Southern California food of In-N-Out Burger, or does he prefer the burgers served up by the pride of the Midwest, Steak ‘n Shake?

“In-N-Out,” he said. “Steak ‘n Shake’s pretty good, but I’ve got to go with In-N-Out.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected].