The original Big Dawg has joined the Utah Jazz.
Antoine Carr, who was calling himself the Big Dawg years before some upstart college kid from Purdue claimed the nickname, has agreed to a contract, the Jazz announced Saturday."You hope he can come in and fit in with the team, be a strong asset up front," said Jazz forward Karl Malone.
A 6-foot-9, 255-pound forward, the 33-year-old Carr has played the last three seasons with the San Antonio Spurs. He's coming off a season in which he missed 48 regular-season games due to a stress fracture in his ankle. He averaged 5.8 points in 34 regular-season games and 5.0 points in three playoff contests.
In his last full season, 1992-93, Carr averaged 13.1 ppg and 5.5 rebounds.
Prior to his stint with the Spurs, Carr played a season and a half with Sacramento and 51/2 years with the Atlanta Hawks. His best scoring year was 1990-91 with the Kings, when he averaged 20.1 ppg.
Originally a first-round draft pick of Detroit in 1983 (the eighth player chosen overall) after playing collegiately at Wichita State, Carr played his first professional season in Italy.
Report on Saturday night's Jazz-Cleveland game is on page D4