American basketball player
Reginald Gene Cross (born August 12, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball with the Miami Dade Sharks and the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. Cross was selected in the 1987 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers but never played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He instead played professionally in the American Continental Basketball Association (CBA) and in France, Spain and Turkey. Cross is the most recent player from the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors to be selected in an NBA draft.
College career
Cross emerged as a promising prospect while playing at South Plantation High School in Plantation, Florida, and received multiple scholarship offers from NCAA Division I colleges.[1] However, he was not initially academically eligible and instead played his first two seasons of college basketball with the Miami Dade Sharks.[1] During his sophomore season, he was selected to the All-State Team and named by Basketball Weekly as being among the top junior college transfer candidates.[1] In 1986, Cross was offered a scholarship by the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who had first attempted to recruit him during his high school career.[1] He was required to spend the 1986–87 season at Leeward Community College while not playing basketball to become academically eligible for Hawaii.[1] Cross financially supported himself while taking classes by working full-time as a courier for a legal firm.[1]
Cross made his debut for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors during the 1987–88 season, and averaged 15.7 points per game.[1] During his senior season in 1988–89, Cross led Hawaii to its first postseason bid since 1974 while averaging 18.6 points per game.[1] Cross was subsequently selected to the All-WAC First Team, while he was named as Hawaii's most outstanding player during both of his seasons with the team.[1][2][3] He gained further attention from NBA teams following a promising showing at an All-Star Game in Japan and earned invites to multiple NBA tryout camps.[1]
Professional career
Cross was selected in the 1989 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers as the 44th overall pick. He was waived by the 76ers on October 19, 1989.[4]
On November 1989 he joined Hapoel Haifa in Israel and played there for 6 months
Cross spent the 1990 season in the Continental Basketball Association, splitting his season between the Grand Rapids Hoops and the Yakima Sun Kings.[5] At the end of the 1990 CBA season, Cross joined the Orlando Magic for training camp but did not make the team's final roster.[6] He spent part of the 1990–91 season playing in Spain with the Grupo IFA Granollers,[7] replacing Tom Sheehey.[8]
After a stint in France playing for Le Mans Sarthe during the 1991–92 season, Cross returned to the United States in 1992 to play for the Palm Beach Stingrays of the United States Basketball League (USBL) and the Columbus Horizon of the CBA.[5][9][10] Following the conclusion of the CBA season, he joined the Washington Bullets for training camp but missed time with the team due to an illness in his family.[11] In June 1993 he played for the Winnipeg Thunder of the Canadian National Basketball League after having been part of the Montreal Dragons roster.[12] He spent three consecutive seasons playing in Turkey from 1993 to 1996.[13]
Personal life
Cross' first child, a daughter, was born while he was attending Miami Dade.[1] He married the child's mother, Gwenell, in 1986.[1] His second child, a son, was born during his first season at Hawaii.[1]
