Russell Cross (born September 5, 1961) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player who was selected by the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

's Golden State Warriors in the first round (6th pick overall) of the 1983 NBA draft.

College career

Russell Cross attended and played basketball at Manley High School, located on the West Side of Chicago. He led Manley to an Illinois state title; he was selected to the

McDonald's All-American McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger s ...

team and was also a first-team ''Parade'' All-American; he was also the ''Parade'' Player of the Year. The 6'10" center moved on to attend

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

, where he played his freshman season under first year head coach,

Gene Keady Lloyd Eugene Keady (born May 21, 1936) is an American basketball coach. He is best known for his 25 years serving as the head men's basketball coach at Purdue University in Indiana. In his tenure leading the Boilermakers from 1980 to 2005, he went ...

. In his first season as a

Boilermaker A boilermaker is a tradesperson who fabricates steel, iron, or copper into boilers and other large containers intended to hold hot gas or liquid, as well as maintains and repairs boilers and boiler systems.Bureau of Labor Statistics, US De ...

, he set a freshman record with 540 points on the season and led Purdue to an NIT third-place finish and to a 21–11 record. In his sophomore season, Cross helped lead them to the NIT Finals with All-

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

teammate, Keith Edmonson. In his junior season, he led Purdue to a 21–9 record and onto a Second Round NCAA Tournament appearance. Russell was named ''First Team All-Big Ten'' his junior year.

Professional career

Russell Cross skipped his senior year at Purdue to enter the 1983 NBA draft, where he was selected as the 6th pick in the first round by the Golden State Warriors. Cross played in only one NBA season, averaging 3.7 points in 45 games for the Warriors in the 1983-84 NBA season. Cross then signed a contract with the Denver Nuggets, he did not appear in a game and was waived late in the 1984–85 season. He spent the remainder of the 1984–85 season and the 1985–86 season with the Louisville Catbirds and then moved to Europe, where he spent the next seven seasons in the Italian and Spanish Leagues.

References

External links

Career statistics
1961 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Italy American expatriate basketball people in Spain American men's basketball players Basket Napoli players Basketball players from Chicago CB Breogán players Centers (basketball) Golden State Warriors draft picks Golden State Warriors players La Crosse Catbirds players Liga ACB players Louisville Catbirds players McDonald's High School All-Americans Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball players {{1960s-US-basketball-bio-stub