Trade Announcement:
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PHILADELPHIA, PA – Aug. 6, 2002 – Philadelphia 76ers General Manager Billy King announced today that the Sixers have acquired forward Keith Van Horn and center Todd MacCulloch in a trade with the New Jersey Nets for center Dikembe Mutombo.
Van Horn, 6-foot-10 and 255 pounds, boasts career averages of 18.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 34.7 minutes per game over a span of 314 career contests. He has shot 43.4 percent from the field, 83.7 percent from the charity stripe and 34.6 percent from behind the three-point arc during his five years in New Jersey. In 2001-02, Van Horn played and started in a personal-best 81 games, posting averages of 14.8 points and a team-best 7.5 rebounds, helping the Nets to their first-ever appearance in the NBA Finals. During the Nets run through the NBA Playoffs, Van Horn averaged 13.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 32.2 minutes per game. The product of the University of Utah was originally drafted by the 76ers with the No. 2 overall selection in the 1997 NBA Draft. His draft rights were traded by the 76ers to New Jersey along with Michael Cage, Lucious Harris and Don MacLean for the draft rights to Tim Thomas and Anthony Parker, along with Jim Jackson and Eric Montross. In his first NBA season, Van Horn was selected as first-team All-Rookie.
MacCulloch returns to the 76ers after playing his first two seasons in Philadelphia. The 7-foot, 280-pound Canadian native posted career bests last season in points (9.7), rebounds (6.1) and blocked shots (1.44) in 24.2 minutes per game. He led the Nets in field goal percentage, converting 53.1 percent from the floor in 62 contests. In the NBA Playoffs, MacCulloch started all 20 games and averaged 6.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.35 blocks in 19.2 minutes per game. Drafted by the 76ers out of the University of Washington with the 47th overall selection of the 1999 NBA Draft, MacCulloch has played in 181 career games, averaging 5.9 points and 3.8 rebounds. The Nets signed him as a free agent on Aug. 7, 2001.
Eight-time NBA All-Star Mutombo is entering his 12th season as a professional, averaging 12.3 points, 12.8 rebounds and 3.4 blocks in 840 games. The 7-foot-2, 265-pound native of the Congo is a four-time recipient of the NBA Defensive Player of the Year (2001, 1998, 1997, 1995) and ranks sixth all-time on the NBA’s blocked shots list with 2,836 career rejections. In the NBA Playoffs, Mutombo has played in 66 career games, averaging 12.7 points, 12.6 rebounds and 3.3 blocked shots in 40.6 minutes. In 2001, when the 76ers advanced to the NBA Finals, he posted 13.9 points, 13.7 rebounds, and 3.1 blocked shots in 23 contests. Mutombo has played for three different teams, starting his career with Denver after being selected by the Nuggets with the fourth overall pick of the 1991 NBA Draft. After five seasons in Denver, he was signed as a free agent by Atlanta on July 15, 1996. Mutombo then spent four-plus seasons with the Hawks before landing in Philadelphia on Feb. 22, 2001 in a trade that sent Sixers Theo Ratliff, Toni Kukoc, Nazr Mohammed, and Pepe Sanchez to Atlanta.
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