J-Speaks: JCrossover Retires From NBA

 

For 20 NBA seasons, a former First-Round draft choice had a major impact with his ability to shoot and score off the bench for nine different NBA teams, playing for an NBA-record 20 different head coaches. He had an uncanny ability to come off the pine and make his presence felt on the floor the moment he got onto the hardwood. Along with his ability to impact the game for his team on the floor and had an amazing ability to connect with his teammates and the media. Last weekend, this super-sub announced the end of his professional basketball journey.

Two Sunday ago, Jamal Crawford, who played for nine teams (Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks, Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Phoenix Suns, and Brooklyn Nets) and 20 different head coaches in his 20 seasons in the NBA from 2000-2020 announced his retirement from the National Basketball Association (NBA).

In a post on his Twitter page @JCrossover dawning a sleeveless shirt, shorts and basketball kicks standing in front of a hoop with a basketball between his left forearm and left hip looking into the distance of clouds, the Seattle, WA native said last Monday, Mar. 21, “Goodbye to the game, all the spoils the adrenaline rush.”

Crawford added in his Twitter post, “Thank you basketball, I owe you everything.”

NBA Alumni posted on their Twitter pabge @NBAalumini, “Congratulations @JCrossover and welcome to the other sider!

Crawford, 42 was a three-time Kia Sixth Man of the Year Award recipient, tied with Hawks Lou Williams for the most award wins in NBA history. Crawford, who won Sixth Man of the Year once with the Hawks (2009-10) and twice with the Clippers (2014 & 2016) was also the recipient of the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year in 2018-19. He retired ranking 61^st on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, using his legendary ballhandling skills and playmaking ability to score 19,419 career points, averaging 14.6 points per game on 34.8 three-point percentage.

At the start of his career, Crawford, No. 8 overall pick in 2000 out of the University of Michigan by the Cavaliers and was dealt to the Bulls on draft night was a starter with the Bulls and Knicks (2000-08), beginning in his third NBA season with Bulls in 2002-03. He averaged a career-best 20.6 points in 80 games (all starts) with the Knicks in 2007-08. Following the 2008-09 season with the Warriors, where he averaged 19.7 points in 54 games played began the next leg of his career becoming one of the best Sixth men in NBA history, where he started a total of 40 games from 2009-2020 with the Hawks, Trail Blazers, Clippers, Timberwolves, Suns, and Nets.

Crawford today holds the NBA-record for four-point plays in the regular season with 55, and 60 counting the postseason. He is No. 8 in most three-pointers made in NBA history with 2,221. Only the aforementioned Williams at 13,386 points and counting has scored more points off the bench than the 11,279 total career points as a reserve by Crawford.

Crawford also joined future Hall of Famers in Carter (22 seasons), and Dirk Nowitzki (21 seasons), Robert “The Chief” Parish (21 seasons) and Kevin Willis (21 seasons) and Hall of Famers in the late Kobe Bryant (20), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (20), and Kevin Garnett (20) as the only eight players in NBA history to play in the NBA for at least 20 seasons

Along with the ability to put the ball in the basket on a consistent basis during his NBA career, Crawford’s leadership, and ability to connect with the plethora of teammates he played with during his 20-year career made him a special leader on the hardwood as well as a solid player.

Crawford was not shy about expressing his desire to return to “The Association” and play a 21^st season. He last played for Brooklyn Nets two seasons back but when the league restarted at Walt Disney World Resort and Wide World of Sports Complex in early August 2020. He entered the Nets contest against the Bucks 4 minutes, 35 seconds into the opening period, but suffered an injury to his left hamstring in the second quarter, leaving the game and not returning. That would be the only appearance for Crawford as a Net, where he totaled five points, going 2/4 shooting, including a 1 for 2 effort from three-point range with three assists in five minutes. Crawford became the oldest player at age 40 years and 137 days in the league’s restart. Carter (43 years, 45 days) as the oldest player to play in a game in the 2019-20 season overall when he played on Mar. 11, 2020 when the Hawks played versus the Knicks, the final night before the NBA shut down because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.  

Crawford also became the oldest player to ever appear in a game in Nets history, surpassing the previous mark set by Clifford Robinson in 2007, who was 40 years and 121 days old when he played for the then New Jersey Nets versus the crosstown rival Knicks

The season before that with the Suns, Crawford scored 51 points in the regular-season finale Mavericks Apr. 9, 2019 becoming the oldest player in NBA history at 39 years and 20 days old to score 50 points or more since Hall of Famer and six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan scored 51 points at age 38 in December 2001. Crawford also is the only player in NBA history to have a 50-point game with four different NBA teams.

For two decades, Jamal Crawford brought his electric ball-handling and street-balling style to the NBA hardwood that helped turn him into one of the best high scoring reserves in NBA history. He brought a flare to the game helped nine different teams win a lot of games. He had a personality and determination that earned him respect from his teammates and natural gravitas that made him enjoyable for his teammates as well as the media to be around. He had a game and a work ethic that made him a wanted commodity each and every offseason or at the trade deadline. He would bring you out of your seat each time you saw him play and he had an uncanny ability to strike a match from the perimeter.

While his NBA career may have come to an official conclusion, that does not mean that Jamal Crawford time of playing the game that he loved has concluded. He has a love for the game to where seeing him on a blacktop court or at a local gym, especially in the Pacific Northwest would not be surprising and he will walk on that court ready to make shots and help his team earn a win as well as continue to gain respect from those he plays with. Those that watch him play as well as those he plays against.

“Jamal Crawford is one of the most special, one of the most unique players that this game has seen,” Richard Jefferson, who played 14 years in the NBA said on the Mar. 21 edition of ESPN’s “NBA Today,” on Mar. 21. “You look at what he was able to do, a Top 10 pick. Having an amazing career. When you talk about Sixth Man of the Year. There were people that were like, ‘Hey, this is everything that a Sixth Man is supposed to be.”

“So, from the bottom of my heart, a person that competed against him I just want to say one congratulations on retirement. But also, congratulations on an amazing career to Jamal Crawford.”

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 8/5/2020 www.nba.com story, “Jamal Crawford Makes Debut, Leaves With Injury;” with contribution from “The Associated Press;” 3/21/2022 3 p.m. “NBA Today,” ESPN, presented by Credit Karma with Malika Andrews, Chiney Ogwumike, Richard Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Ramona Shelburne, Marc J. Spears, Dave McMenamin, and Cassidy Hubbarth; 3/21/2022 www.nba.com story, “20-Year NBA Veteran Jamal Crawford Announces Retirement;” 3/21/2022 https://www.azcentral.com story, “Former Sun, 3-Time Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford Officially Retires From NBA,” by Dana Scott; https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/fg3_career.html; www.statmuse.com;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Crawford.