Hawkins Crush’s key cog

The Orange County Crush, an American Basketball Association expansion

franchise scheduled to play its games at the Orange County

Fairgrounds beginning Nov. 18, has signed former Houston Rocket

Juaquin Hawkins.

Hawkins, 31, who played collegiately at Long Beach State, averaged

2.3 points and 1.3 rebounds for the Rockets during the 2002-03

season.

The 6-foot-7, 220-pounder was ABA Defensive Player of the Year

last season, playing for Crush Coach Earl Cureton with the Long Beach

Jam, which won the league championship.

“[Hawkins is] a very special player and the fans will love him,”

Cureton said.

Hawkins played 58 games for the Rockets in his only NBA season,

logging nearly 12 minutes per contest. He made 57 of 148 field-goal

attempts, including 10 of 24 three-point tries.

Hawkins’ professional career includes stops in the Far East, as

well as domestic locales.

After being named Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year

three times as a 49er, Hawkins signed with the Hung Fu Rams in

Taiwan, where he played the 1996-97 season. He was the league’s

Defensive Player of the Year after leading the league in steals.

He then joined the Harlem Ambassadors to start the 1997-98

campaign, before hooking on with the Long Island Surf of the United

States Basketball League later that season.

Hawkins played with the Harlem Globetrotters in 1998-99.

He then signed with the Fort Wayne Fury of the Continental

Basketball Association for the 1999-2000 season.

He spent the 2000-01 season with the Japan-based Toyota Alvark.

He joined the ABA’s Southern California Surf for the 2001-02

season.

* In other Crush news: The team will hold its final tryout

Saturday at the American Sports Center (1500 S. Anaheim Blvd. in

Anaheim), with registration beginning at 8 a.m.

The tryout will begin at 10 a.m. and conclude at 3 p.m.

The cost is $100, though players with proof they have tried out

with another ABA team will be charged $75.

For tryout information phone Mike Gallops from the Sports Center

at (714) 914-3602 or Crush General Manager Kevin A. Copeland at (562)

861-6089.