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AUGSBURG'S DEVEAN GEORGE PAGE
TORONTO -- Augsburg College alumnus and decade-long NBA veteran Devean George '99 has been traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Toronto Raptors as part of a four-team, eight-player deal, it was announced on Thursday.
Entering his 11th season in the NBA in 2009-10, the Raptors will be the third team George has played for in his career. He spent his first seven seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers (1999-2006), as a part of world championship teams his first three years. George signed as a free agent with Dallas in 2006 and spent the last three seasons with the Mavericks.
In his 10 NBA seasons (585 regular-season games, 104 starts), he has averaged 5.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 0.7 steals in 18.7 minutes played per-game. In 86 playoff games (27 starts) over eight seasons, he averaged 5.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 17.2 minutes played per-game.
George has been hampered by injuries over the last several campaigns, as he was limited to just 43 games this past season with the Mavericks, ending his season prematurely in March with knee surgery. He averaged 3.4 points and 1.8 rebounds per-game in 2008-09.
George was part of a complex four-team, eight-player deal that was completed on Thursday. Dallas traded guard Antoine Wright to Toronto with George, while trading guard Jerry Stackhouse to Memphis. Meanwhile, Orlando traded forward Hedo Turkoglu to Toronto, Memphis traded guard Greg Buckner to Dallas, and Toronto traded forward Shawn Marion, forward Kris Humphries and center Nathan Jawai to Dallas. A 2016 second-round pick was traded from Memphis to Toronto, and Orlando received cash considerations from both Dallas and Toronto to complete the deal.
In 1999, the Minneapolis native (Benilde-St. Margaret HS) became the first NCAA Division III player ever selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, when the Los Angeles Lakers made him the 23rd overall selection. He became one of only seven players in NBA history to be a member of championship squads in each of his first three seasons in the league, as his Lakers squads won three straight titles (2000-02).
In his career at Augsburg, George led the Auggies to two MIAC regular-season championships and berths in the NCAA Division III national playoffs (1997-98 and 1998-99), earning conference MVP honors both times. He earned multiple Division III All-American honors his senior season. He was named a second-team All-American by D3hoops.com his junior season and a first-team All-American his senior year.
He finished his college career with 2,258 career points and 868 career rebounds, both second in school history. While playing in just 96 career games, he fell only 13 points short of Augsburg's scoring record, held by Brian Ammann (1981-85), of 2,271 in 106 games (21.4 per game). George finished his career with a 23.5 points-per-game average, best in school history. Dan Anderson (1961-65) holds the school's career rebounding record with 1,211 (11.5 per game). George finished his career with a 9.0 rebounds-per-game average.
George's college jersey number, 40, was retired by Augsburg in 2003. He wore No. 3 while with the Lakers, but returned to his old college number when he joined the Mavericks.
George is one of only eight players who played Division III basketball to see playing time in the NBA, and he remains the only player who played Division III basketball to ever play in the NBA Finals [Jack Sikma (Illinois Wesleyan '77, Seattle in the finals 1978-79) and Terry Porter (Wisconsin-Stevens Point '85, Portland in the finals 1990-92) played at what are now NCAA Division III schools, but those schools were members of the NAIA during those players' careers.].
George was the third Augsburg player to ever be drafted by an NBA team (Augsburg was an NAIA school prior to 1985), and the second to play professionally at the sport's highest level. Anderson was drafted in the 12th round by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1965. He later played in the ABA with the New Jersey Americans (later New Jersey Nets) from 1967-70. Greg Boone '81, who played for the Auggies from 1979-81, was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers as a 10th-round pick in 1981, but never played in the NBA
