Underdog Stories / Sports analysis & explainers

How Isaac Austin Went From NBA Castoff to Most Improved Player

The Isaac Austin NBA comeback story runs through a junior college, two years overseas and a Miami tryout that turned a castoff into the 1997 award winner.

By Brett Hanson · Underdog Podcasts · March 31, 2018

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A phone rang in Isaac Austin’s room at Cleveland’s training camp. He had passed through a physical but had yet to step onto the court. Austin said the Cavaliers told him he weighed 440 pounds, had bad knees, and could not stay. He asked to be sent home to Phoenix. That call sits near the center of the Isaac Austin NBA comeback story.

Austin rebuilt his conditioning with trainer Mac Newton, then spent two seasons playing in Europe. Miami gave him a tryout in 1996. He made the team, played all 82 games and won the NBA’s 1997 Most Improved Player award. His scoring average was 9.7 points, which tells you something useful: this was a comeback measured in trust and minutes, rather than a sudden run of huge scoring nights.

On Tales from the Association, host Chris Horwedel had to pull Austin back to the years between Cleveland and Miami. Austin knew where his story was headed. The stops along the way explain why getting there took so long.

Why did Isaac Austin start at junior college?

Few colleges came calling. Austin told Horwedel that few colleges recruited him out of Las Plumas High School in California, so Reedley Junior College gave him time to grow into his body and his game. Coach Hughes, whom he knew from a camp, pushed him to get his weight and conditioning under control, Austin said.

That mattered before the NBA was even in view. Austin said he did not begin to bloom until junior college. The extra time gave a player without much recruiting attention a path to Arizona State, where his older brother Alex played.

Austin said he chose Arizona State in large part because he wanted to play with Alex. He also felt at ease with the players he met during a summer visit. Once there, he was more than the younger brother tagging along. Across two seasons, Austin averaged 15.0 points and 7.4 rebounds. As a senior in 1990–91, he led the Sun Devils with 16.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Arizona State reached its first NCAA tournament in ten years.

Austin told Horwedel he had not thought of leaving for the NBA after his first year at Arizona State. The opening came later, after a last-minute invitation to a pre-draft camp in Chicago. His body still was not right. He had hurt his knee in the college tournament. He played well enough at camp to get workouts, and the man who had needed junior college to draw attention was now waiting to hear his name at the draft.

What happened after the Utah Jazz drafted Isaac Austin?

Austin expected Charlotte to take him in the second round of the 1991 NBA draft. Charlotte passed. He told Horwedel he had never worked out for Utah, yet Jazz coach Jerry Sloan called his family’s home to say the team had picked him 48th. The Pac-10’s record of Austin’s career confirms the pick.

Utah offered a remarkable place to learn, though minutes were hard to find. The Jazz treated the knee he had injured in college. Austin recalled working out with Karl Malone at Malone’s ranch, where Malone did the drills beside him, and said that example stayed with him after Utah released him.

The numbers show how little room Austin had. He averaged 2.8 points in 46 games for the Jazz in 1992–93. His 129 points that season were fewer than he would score in some single months with Miami. Utah’s media guide records three starts that year.

Austin told Horwedel he was upset when the Jazz waived him in 1993. He also saw that he had been well down the depth chart. Philadelphia later signed him to a ten-day contract, and Austin said he valued the chance to play alongside Moses Malone. His stint with the 76ers lasted 14 games during the 1993 to 94 season. It kept him in the NBA for a while. It did not give him a secure job.

How did playing overseas help Isaac Austin?

Austin played in France in 1994 to 95, then in Turkey in 1995 to 96. Those seasons fall between his brief Philadelphia stint and his return with Miami. In the interview, Austin gave a plain reason for going abroad: he needed minutes.

He told Horwedel that playing regularly let him build confidence. In Turkey, with Tuborg, he had enough time on the floor to find out what worked against opponents who were trying to stop him. Horwedel raised his scoring and rebounding there, and Austin agreed that he felt like a different player.

“I didn't even have no contract. I just said, man, it's an opportunity.”
— Isaac Austin, on Tales From the Association

It was hardly a tidy tale of overseas comfort. Austin said Tuborg once stopped paying him, so he went home. He returned after the club agreed to pay what it owed. Horwedel joked about the money arriving in a suitcase; Austin said he had asked for exactly that. The exchange got a laugh. The unpaid wages were real to the player waiting for them.

The years abroad gave Austin something his early NBA stops had not: repeated chances to play through a full game. His return still depended on a team being willing to look past the weight label that, he told Horwedel, had followed him since Utah.

Isaac Austin NBA comeback story: how did Miami find him?

Austin said the Heat saw him during summer play and invited him to minicamps. He recalled roughly 150 players passing through. According to Austin, two of them made the roster: himself and Tony Farmer.

The first camp did not end with a contract. Austin said Pat Riley came into the locker room and told him to lose about 15 pounds before the next one. Austin went back to Phoenix, worked with Mac Newton and returned lighter. Miami’s media guide records that the Heat signed him on October 3, 1996.

There was a spell between the invitation and the signing when Austin said the Heat offered to cover his daily expenses if he came to work out. No contract was attached. “I didn't even have no contract,” Austin told Horwedel. “I just said, man, it's an opportunity.”

Austin said he did extra time on the bike while working out with the other players. Then Alonzo Mourning arrived, and Austin got to play against him. Austin believed Mourning might miss games during the season, making Miami a place where a backup center could earn minutes. That was Austin’s reading of the chance in front of him, and he put in the work before he knew the Heat would keep him.

The official signing date makes the end of that tryout clear. Austin’s account supplies the less certain part: the weeks when he was simply showing up, losing weight and hoping somebody noticed.

Why did Isaac Austin win Most Improved Player in 1997?

Austin played all 82 regular-season games for Miami in 1996 to 97 and started 17. He averaged 9.7 points and 5.8 rebounds in 22.9 minutes per game, shooting 50.2 percent from the field. Those are strong backup-center numbers. From a player who had spent the previous two seasons outside the NBA, they were a startling change in role.

Miami needed him. Mourning played 66 games that season. The Heat finished with 61 wins and 21 losses. They beat New York in a seven-game playoff series before losing to Chicago in the Eastern Conference finals. The NBA’s account of the season names Austin among the unexpected contributors to Miami’s rise.

The award can look odd if you search for a giant scoring jump. Austin had averaged more points in Philadelphia than he did in Miami, though that came in just 14 games. What changed was how often a winning team could use him. He went from short stays and uncertain work to a place in the rotation every night. The NBA lists him as its 1996 to 97 Most Improved Player.

When Horwedel asked how the award felt, Austin spoke first about shedding the label of an overweight player. He said teams had kept asking about his weight and body fat. A full season on Riley’s Heat answered a question that one good workout could not. The trophy came after game 82.

What happened after Isaac Austin won the award?

The improvement held into the next season. In 52 games for Miami in 1997 to 98, Austin started 25 and averaged 12.7 points. His role had grown again. Then, on February 19, 1998, the Heat traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers in a deal for Brent Barry.

Austin told Horwedel the trade hurt. He had imagined staying in Miami and said he had little grasp then of the contract choices around him. He was careful about Riley, too: Austin said they later had a good relationship and that Riley had taught him a great deal. Hurt feelings and respect both survived the move.

The Heat’s records add a small wrinkle to the clean comeback tale. Austin signed with Miami again in September 2003, then was waived in October before the season began. His award year remains the part people remember. For Austin, who once came to work out without a contract, the date of the first signing may have been the more surprising one.