这一篇真的是太生动了，呼叫摇摆人助阵 ... ^_^ -- http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/9/070882-6429-039.html Croshere's chance to resurrect career arrives with Bird Bob Kravitz September 3, 2003 Good morning, Austin Croshere. You have a basketball career once again. Or, at least, you have a chance to establish a basketball career once again. Remember back when you had a basketball career? Remember when you were Austin Croshere, cornerstone of the future? Remember when you were a hot commodity, when people actually talked about you like you could play, applauding your full-court game and basketball savvy? Honest, there was a time when teams were bidding on you. I'm not making this up. That's why you got $51 million over seven years. I can tell you, it wasn't the haircut. It's understandable, Austin, if you don't have a clear recollection of those salad days. I mean, it's been so long since you've played, it's a wonder you could make it from the end of the bench to the scorer's table without consulting mapquest.com. Here's how you know you've fallen and you can't get up: It's Game 6 of the Boston wipeout, and you get a DNP-CD. What? Isiah Thomas was afraid if he played you, the Pacers might really get blown out of the building? Well, Austin, your basketball life is, as they say in French Lick and points south, fixin' to change. Larry Bird, who once thought you could play this game, is back. (Honest. It's in all the newspapers.) And it's expected that Rick Carlisle, another guy who once thought you could play this game, will be named today as the Pacers' coach. (I'm hearing Tuesday's hold-up had something to do with a leaky canoe and a misbehaving sump pump). In the world of crime and punishment, they call this a reprieve, a pardon, a second chance. May I share a little advice here? Don't blow it. Because the ball is in your court now . . . Yeah, the ball, the big orange spheroid with the dimples. The court is the big, painted floor where you used to work. I understand, it's going to be a slow process. This is your chance, though, to show everybody that Thomas was wrong to hide you behind Primoz Brezec most of the past three seasons. This is your chance to show that you were almost worth the big contract; that, despite the clear defensive deficiencies, you can still be a contributor with a rare, inside-outside game. This is your chance, maybe your last chance, to redeem your flagging career, and leave everybody to wonder what Thomas saw, or didn't see, that made him so reluctant to allow you off the bench. Put it this way: If you're still the 10th man when the season opens this fall, it's only one guy's fault. Yours. Come to think of it, Austin, what are you doing reading this? You should be in the gym right now, pumping iron to take on the bruising power forwards, working on your speed and footwork so small forwards won't leave you in the dust. If it's going to happen, Austin, it's got to happen here. The Pacers have been trying for three years to move that salary, and no luck. What's to make anybody think some NBA team is going to get excited about paying $7 million and change to the guy guarding the water cooler? For three years, I've been writing you're going to get traded in the summer. For three years, you've been showing up for work at the fieldhouse. Some guys get moved and blossom in the new atmosphere. The new atmosphere has come to you, big guy. It's got to happen here, and it's got to happen now -- even if the roster, as it's presently constituted, has 12 guys who play the same position. (The sooner that changes, the better.) My opinion: I've always thought that if you played regularly, had a consistent role, received enough minutes to get into the flow of the game, you could be a very big part of a winning team. Like you were in the spring of 2000. Back when you were Austin Croshere. Sorry, Austin Croshere. End up back on the end of the bench again this season, and the career epitaph will read thusly: Isiah was right. --

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