As the 2021-22 season draws to a close, a report by Shams Charaniya draws attention away from potential playoff games across teams — Jamal Crawford, a generation of bench players and one of the greatest sixths in NBA history, announced his retirement, and after two seasons off the field, the 42-year-old Ke liu chose to return to the mountains, and there is no more legend of him on the lake.
Crawford was the No. 8 draft pick of the 2000 draft, and among the draft players of his class were Ken Young Martin, "Spring Man" Stromayer Swift, Darius Miles known as "Little KG", and "Marksman" Mike Miller. But overall, the 2000 draft strength is not strong, from the career data, Crawford, who can contribute 14.6 points, 2.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, has become the deserved scoring champion of that year.
Although affectionately known as "G-Six", Jamal Crawford was not trained as a bench weapon from the beginning of his career, and after being sent to the Bulls by the Cavaliers at the draft, Crawford spent three years in Chicago honing himself into the NBA's top ball-handling offensive player, and his average points per game in the Bulls' final year had climbed from 4.6 points in the rookie season to 17.3 points. After that, Crawford naturally became the absolute workhorse of the team and broke through the 20-point average mark per game during the Knicks period.
A turning point in Crawford's career came in the 2009-10 season, when he was sent to the Atlanta Hawks by the Golden State Warriors. There, because of the overlap with the "Eagle King" Joe Johnson at that time, Crawford had to start from the bench. As a result, this attempt made Crawford himself and the team find him perfectly suited to stand up on the bench to play the role of a miracle soldier, and he has been out of control ever since.
Because Crawford, who is 1 meter 96 tall and weighs 89 kilograms, is a player with very obvious advantages and disadvantages, he has a gorgeous style, is good at singles, has a good hard solution ability, but is easy to be targeted at the defensive end, and the low efficiency is not suitable as the core of the team, and because it requires a lot of ball power, it is easy to be compatible with the real core, so as a substitute player and the opponent's second team matchup is the most suitable destination for Crawford. In the 2009-10 season, Crawford was crowned the best sixth man for the first time in his career by 7 minutes compared to 38.1 minutes last season, but his scoring remained at an average of 18 points per game, and his shooting percentage and three-point shooting rate improved, respectively.
As a bench killer, he was re-elected as the Best Sixth Man in 2013-14 and 2015-16, becoming the first player in history to lift the SMOY trophy three times, and together with Louis Williams, he became the only player in history to accomplish such a miracle.
It is worth mentioning that Crawford, who played in the Knicks, has completed a feat of 52 points in a single game, showing his excellent scoring ability, but what is more impressive to everyone is undoubtedly the game in Which Keliu, who played for the Suns in April 2019, scored 51 points in the game when he played against the Lone Ranger like a god, because in that game, Keliu came on as a substitute, which is undoubtedly more representative. With such a brave performance, Crawford has also become the only player in NBA history who has cut 50+ from 4 different teams (Bulls, Knicks, Warriors, Suns), leaving his name in the history of the NBA. In his career, he turned around 9 teams and left behind one legend after another of his own.
Crawford in 2019 is 39 years old, and after scoring 51 points, he told reporters that in fact, no one has seen his real trick, and only the moment he was selected as an All-Star, the world has the honor to see it. Unfortunately, until the day when the Ke Liu Sword was in storage and the horse was released on the South Mountain, we did not have the opportunity to see the real trick in his mouth. And in the Arsenal of KeLiu that we can see, the most representative is undoubtedly the riotous back dribble to shake off the opponent's center of gravity and jump to the basket, which is full of ornamentality! Unfortunately, after Ke Liu, few people used this trick again.
Crawford's last appearance on the court dates back to the 2019-20 season rematch, he appeared once in a basketball tennis suit, scored 5 points in 6 minutes, and did not expect that game to become the NBA song of Gram Six. Twenty years on the pitch, Ke liu has left a single-game scoring record of 51 points off the bench, left behind the legend of the trick that the world finally did not have the opportunity to see, left the image of politeness with only one technical foul in 20 years, and his discussion with Ginobili and Lou Wei who is the best sixth person in history. Goodbye, Jamal Crawford, and good luck for the rest of your life!