NBA Career
After college, Snow was chosen by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round of the 1995 NBA Draft. He was immediately traded to the Seattle SuperSonics, where he played sparingly for the next two-and-one-half seasons.
On January 18, 1998, Snow was acquired from Seattle by the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for a second-round draft pick. He was immediately inserted into the 76ers' starting lineup by head coach Larry Brown, and after averaging only 18.0 minutes per game (then a career high) for the first half of the season with Seattle, he averaged 35.8 minutes per game for the remainder of the season with Philadelphia.
As a pass-first, defensive-minded point guard, Snow became a stalwart of the Brown-era 76ers teams, due largely to his ability to guard the opposing team's shooting guards, which made him an ideal complement to his diminutive but high-scoring backcourt mate Allen Iverson. Despite missing thirty-two games early in the 2000–01 season due to injury, Snow played a crucial role in helping the 76ers earn the top playoff seed in the Eastern Conference and ultimately reach the 2001 NBA Finals, where they lost in five games to the Los Angeles Lakers. During the following season, Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant stated that nobody in the league defended him better than Snow.
In 2002–03, Snow posted career highs in points per game (12.9), rebounds per game (3.7), minutes per game (37.9), field goal percentage (45.2%), and free throw percentage (85.8%). Snow's excellent free throw percentage was particularly noteworthy, as he had been a very poor foul shooter in college and early in his NBA career, averaging 52.1% from the stripe during his four seasons at Michigan State and 59.2% as a rookie. He also averaged 6.6 assists and 1.6 steals per game in 2002–03.
As of the end of the 2007–08 season, Snow's career averages stood at 6.8 points, 5.0 assists, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.2 steals in 27.3 minutes per game. Snow has reached the NBA Finals three times—once with each of the teams on which he has played in his career: the SuperSonics in 1996, the 76ers in 2001, and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007. Unfortunately for Snow, all three teams lost in the finals.
Read more about this topic: Eric Snow
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