CROSS SECTIONS MAGAZINE / WINTER 2014
19
CROSHERE
really became an extraordinary basketball player. He even started to catch the attention of college recruiters. It didn’t hurt that he grew from being 6 feet tall to 6 feet 9 inches by 11th-grade; however, nothing came to Austin that wasn’t earned through hours upon hours of intense work. “The thing about him is, he’s just the hardest worker you could imagine,” Paul Cummins said in a 2000 Los Angeles Times editorial that referred to Austin.
HALL OF FAME HONOREES
MEN
Austin Croshere ’93
Austin Croshere came to Crossroads as a freshman. He was a tall, thin young man who was described by his coaches as pleasant, hardworking and a man of few words. He did not make the varsity basketball team as a freshman; instead, he pushed hard to make an impression on the junior varsity team in hopes of making the varsity squad the next year. Not someone to take a season off, Austin spent his spring season as a valued member of the junior varsity volleyball team to close out his ninth-grade year. The Boys Volleyball coach Mary Jo Deutschman (MJ) remembers him fondly as a wonderful, hardworking boy who rarely spoke. His tendency to say very little was such a strong character trait, that she gave him a dictionary as an end-ofseason gift. Austin’s hard work paid off because he earned his place on the varsity basketball team as a sophomore; he was a power forward and a center for the team. Although his work ethic was admirable and his play respectable during his sophomore year, it was in his junior year that Austin
In his senior year, Austin earned League MVP and All-CIF honors, and he was the leading scorer in the first Division 4 CIF Championship that Crossroads won. Throughout his junior and senior years at Crossroads, he was actively recruited and eventually chose to attend Providence College in Providence, R.I. In the 1997 NBA draft, Austin Croshere was a firstround pick. He then went on to play nine seasons with the Indiana Pacers. He was a threat from the outside with an all-around offensive game and an ability to perform well in the postseason. After his time with the Pacers, he played for the Dallas Mavericks during the 200607 season and the Golden State Warriors during the 2007-08 season. Currently, he works as a game analyst for Fox Sports, where he’s putting his dictionary to good use. Baron Davis ’97
Baron Davis’ love of basketball started on a bumpy backyard court built by his grandfather in South Central Los Angeles. He and his little sister moved in with their grandparents at a young age so that they could have a consistent and safe environment to call home. Baron learned to play basketball amidst older kids who did
not go easy on him simply because he was smaller. Although his neighborhood was littered with frequent gang activity, there was little pressure on him to join one because it was well known in the neighborhood that Baron only thought about one thing: playing basketball. Baron’s grandmother wanted him to be brought up with values and to have opportunities far beyond the barriers of South Central. This is what led him to Crossroads. His former coach, Thaddeus McGrew, introduced Baron to Daryl Roper, head coach of Crossroads boys varsity basketball. From there, he became a Crossroads legend. In 1996, during his junior year in high school, Daryl was receiving more than 20 phone calls per day from college recruiters. At the time, he was the most sought-after high school basketball player in California and was actively pursued by some of the biggest basketball schools in the country, including the University of Kansas, Duke University, the University of Connecticut, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Los Angeles.
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