Keith Van Horn

Keith Adam Van Horn (born October 23, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player.

Van Horn played for the New Jersey Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks, Milwaukee Bucks, and the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

A forward, Van Horn finished his college basketball career with the Utah Utes as the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).

He played for Utah from 1993 to 1997 and received numerous All American awards during his career at Utah.

In Van Horn's first season, he averaged a Utah-freshman record 18.3 points on 51 percent shooting and 8.3 rebounds per game even though his father died during the freshman year.

As a sophomore, Van Horn led his team to the NCAA Tournament.

Among his collegiate accomplishments is being the first player in WAC history to be named Player of the Year three times (1995,1996,1997), being the second player in WAC history to make first team all-WAC four years in a row and being the all-time leading scorer in University of Utah and WAC history with 2,542 points.

Van Horn is the University of Utah career leader in points, defensive rebounds, three-point field goals made, free throw percentage and is second in total rebounds.

He averaged 20.8 points and 8.8 rebounds in his collegiate career.

He was a consensus first-team All-American in 1997.

Van Horn was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the second pick in the 1997 NBA draft and was traded to the New Jersey Nets on draft night.

Van Horn played for the Nets from 1997 to 2002, leading the team in scoring in the 1997–98 and 1998–99 seasons, finishing fifth in the NBA in scoring in the 1998–99 season, and was a key member of the 2001–02 Nets' team that made the NBA Finals.

He would also go on to play for the 76ers, the New York Knicks, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Dallas Mavericks.

Van Horn averaged 16 points and nearly seven rebounds per game during his NBA career.

Van Horn graduated from Diamond Bar High School in Diamond Bar, California and attended the University of Utah.

Rick Majerus recruited him to replace departing star Josh Grant.

He is well known for his last second heroics, making back to back game winning shots against SMU and New Mexico in the 1997 WAC Conference Tournament.

In 1997, he shot 90.4 percent from the free throw line and averaged 22.0 points and 9.5 rebounds per game to lead the Utes to a 29–4 finish and #2 national ranking, the highest in school history.

This led to advancing to the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight.

As a senior in 1997, he was a consensus first team All American selection and was named ESPN Men's College Player of the Year.

Van Horn was drafted as the second overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers; however, his rights were immediately traded to the New Jersey Nets along with Michael Cage, Lucious Harris and Don MacLean in exchange for the draft rights to Tim Thomas and Anthony Parker and player contracts of Jim Jackson and Eric Montross.

Van Horn played for the Nets from 1997 to 2002.

He was named to the 1998 NBA All-Rookie Team.

His #44 basketball jersey was retired by the University of Utah in 1998.

He was named to NBA All-Rookie First Team in his first season, averaging a team leading 19.7 points and 6.5 rebounds and leading the Nets to the 1998 NBA Playoffs, where they were swept in three games by the Chicago Bulls.

His best season came in 1999, where he averaged a team-leading 21.8 points per game (fifth in the NBA) as well as 8.5 rebounds per game.

That season, on March 26, Van Horn blocked a career-high 6 shots, along with scoring 22 points, during a 100–91 loss to the Indiana Pacers.

He was an important part of the 2001–02 Nets team that won the Eastern Conference Finals, leading the team in rebounding and placing second in scoring.

In the deciding Game 5 of their first round matchup with the Pacers, Van Horn scored a postseason career-high 27 points during a 120–109 victory.

He later hit the game-winning three-point shot against the Boston Celtics in game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals to send the Nets to the 2002 NBA Finals, before they were eventually swept by the Los Angeles Lakers.

He ranks in the Nets' top ten in several statistical categories including points, field goals made, three-point field goals made and attempted, and offensive and defensive rebounds.

On August 6, 2002, Van Horn was traded to the team who initially drafted him, the Philadelphia 76ers, along with Todd MacCulloch for center Dikembe Mutombo.

He spent one year with the 76ers placing second on the team in scoring (15.9 per game) and rebounding (7.1 per game), while in the postseason the 76ers advanced past the New Orleans Hornets in the first round, before being eliminated by the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

After spending a year with the 76ers, Van Horn was traded to the New York Knicks for Latrell Sprewell in a four team deal that also included the Atlanta Hawks and Minnesota Timberwolves.

His stint with the Knicks, although productive, was short; on February 16, 2004, he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in a three team trade involving the Atlanta Hawks, where he was traded for Tim Thomas, marking the second time Thomas and Van Horn were traded for each other.

On March 21, 2004, Van Horn scored his highest single game total in Milwaukee, 32 points during a 104–103 loss to the Lakers.

In the playoffs, however, Van Horn and the Bucks would be eliminated in the first round by the eventual-champion Pistons.

In order to make salary cap room for the signing of free-agent-to-be Michael Redd in the coming off-season, on February 24, 2005, the Bucks traded Van Horn to the Dallas Mavericks for the expiring contracts of Alan Henderson, Calvin Booth and cash.

In February 2008, he was among 16 players named to the University of Utah's "All-Century" basketball team.

Van Horn was inducted to Utah's Crimson Club Hall of Fame in 2012.