Yesterday, Jamal Crawford officially announced his retirement.
Yesterday was Crawford's 42nd birthday, and he wrote on social media: "Goodbye to the field, goodbye to glory, goodbye to that adrenaline rush, thank you basketball, you gave me everything." ”
Shams then followed up with the news: "Three-time best sixth man Jamal Crawford officially announced his retirement, 20 NBA seasons, a total of 19419 points, a real basketball career. ”
In fact, Crawford's retirement is not surprising, after all, he is now 42 years old, and the last time he appeared in the NBA was in the 2019-20 season. He appeared as a Nets player in the Orlando "Bubble", but he only played one game for the Nets, playing 5 points and 3 assists in 6 minutes, and bid farewell to the game because of a hamstring injury.
But this game also brought Crawford's number of seasons in the NBA to 20 seasons. Become the eighth player in NBA history to play 20 seasons. A player who can survive in the NBA for 20 seasons, Crawford naturally has his charm.
The Hawks, Timberwolves, Clippers and other teams sent congratulations, and then Curry, Blowy Yang, Dezhangtai Murray, CJ and other stars sent their blessings. Spurs' Murray said directly: "Thank you for everything you brought, bro. I couldn't have achieved what I am now without you, and I am forever grateful for everything you have taught me! Seattle's Greatest Basketball Player Ever! I love you! ”
Crawford was selected by the Cavaliers with the 8th pick in 2000 to enter the NBA and was traded to the Bulls on draft day. He spent 20 years with the Bulls, Knicks, Warriors, Hawks, Trail Blazers, Clippers, Timberwolves, Suns and Nets.
Put it this way, Crawford was the most accomplished player in the 2000 Draft, because of the 59 players in the same group who entered the league, only 3 of them had been in the All-Star experience, and all of them were all Fringe. They are Kenjan Martin, Magnolia with the 19th overall pick and Michael Reid with the 43rd overall pick.
Although Crawford has never been an All-Star in his career, he should be the most familiar player for fans in that draft, after all, the name of Klook is really loud.
Throughout his career, Crawford won the all-sixth three times, in 2009–10 (Hawks), 2013–14 (Knicks) and 2015–16 (Clippers).
Crawford also became the first player in NBA history to be named Best Sixth Man three times, and while Lou wei has since done the same, Klook is the only player to win Best Sixth Man on three different teams.
As the best sixth man, Crawford's scoring ability naturally goes without saying. In 20 seasons in the league, he played a total of 1327 games in his career, averaging 14.6 points, 2.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.
In addition, he is the only player in NBA history who has won 50+ on all four teams. The four 50+ were: 50 points for the Bulls in 2003-04, 52 points for the Knicks in 2006-07, 50 points for the Warriors in 2008-09, and 51 points for the Suns in 2018-19.
The last 50+ game was the Suns against the Lone Rangers, and Crawford was 39 years and 20 days old at the time, which also made him the oldest player in NBA history to cut the 50+ years old.
If it weren't for another game for the Nets after that, 51 points would have been his farewell score. From the first 50+ in his career to the last 50+, a full 15 years apart, Crawford is definitely an NBA evergreen.
In addition, Crawford's ability to play 4 points is also the best in the league, and he has completed a total of 54 4-point shooting in his career, second only to Harden. So when Crawford is ready to shoot three points, don't jump easily.
But you'll find it's too hard to defend Crawford without jumping. Because of his street ball-like dribbling, the rhythm is too good.
If Iverson exerts the action of changing the direction of the body to the extreme, then Crawford is to practice the backlifting technique, especially the action of dribbling and jumping behind his back, which has become the youth of many people.
Crawford grew up in the southernmost tip of Seattle and was raised by three women, his mother Winola Turner and two older sisters. His mother had two daughters when she was 14 years old, and when she was pregnant with little Crawford, she was too poor to find a way to kill the child. But the eldest daughter Lori advised bitterly: "I am willing to get up in the middle of the night to take care of him, let him sleep with me." Please Mom! ”
At the age of two, Crawford got his first little basketball, made of plastic. After that, no matter where he went, even if he went to school, he would take the ball with him and practice dribbling whenever he had time.
And on that ball, it reads "Basketball is with me," which is his life motto.
Crawford rose to fame when he was 16 years old, when he was still a student at Rainier High School, and one day schramf, the star player of the supersonics, attended a local street ball event, and Crawford directly invited him.
Crawford then demonstrated the various transmission techniques that would later become famous in the league. Steve Gordon, a supersonic assistant coach at the time, recalled, "I can't describe what he did. He shook Schramf down at half-time! We even thought Schramf was injured because of it! ”
Crawford's favorite thing is to study all kinds of dribbling, and his friend Conroy complains that he always receives messages from Crawford, which is a variety of gorgeous collections. For example, Iverson's body forward change, Maddy's breakthrough start, Ginobili's European step, and even his own collection...
"He basically doesn't watch games on TV, he watches YouTube videos." Conroy said, "He'd send me this stuff in the middle of the night, 'Hey, dude, you have to watch these cool videos!'" I usually reply, 'Don't send me these XXX!' ’”
But what's even more amazing is that Crawford never deliberately trains these movements. In Conroy's words: "What surprised me the most was that he never did any dribbling training, never!" Cross steps? He was born to be. ”
Crawford has also said that he never practices changing direction without using things like cones, and his personal training content is very simple, shooting, throwing the ball in various ways.
Dribbling may be Crawford's talent; but shooting is the result of his accumulation over time. His soft feel, his 3+1s who twist and turn in the air but still throw the ball in, may all stem from this.
Gorgeous change of direction + accurate shooting, Crawford has the title of stadium elf. And this casualness, in fact, also hides Crawford's insistence.
Crawford's defense was a mess, largely because of his thin body. So at first he was suggested to gain weight, but he refused, and he wanted to maintain his speed and flexibility.
Early in his career, he would deliberately avoid consuming too much protein to keep his weight from changing too much, and would even replace functional drinks with white water.
Although Crawford on the court is free and agile, he is a training maniac off the field. His agent, Aaron Goodwin, once lamented: "Except for wedding anniversaries, free training camps for poor families, and three-on-three matches with children, it is no problem to discuss work with him at any time." ”
There are rumors that Crawford never played for more than 4 consecutive days before the 21-year-old's anterior cruciate ligament tear in his knee. Even when Thomas jr. went on vacation to the Bahamas, Crawford organized a match against local players.
The night before his wedding, Crawford arranged his bachelor party in the university arena and then organized a game of paul, Griffin, Aldridge and others, to which Crawford explained: "What can you do without playing?" ”
In addition, a very well-known amateur basketball league in the United States is named after the signature action of Gram Six, called TheCrawsover League. The game where Thomas Jr. scored 81 points was here.
Originally the league was called Pro-Am, and Crawford first played in the league at the age of 16 when he accepted an invitation from former NBA player Doug Christie and joined his team. Every year since then, Crawford has played in this game, whether he has become an NBA player or not.
In 2006, Crawford took over the tournament directly as host. Every time, Crawford hosted games out of his own pocket, and spectators watched the game for free, and he used his connections to invite NBA players to come and perform.
Crawford is dedicated to the league, and even during the NBA season, he calls the staff in charge of organizing The Crawsover League in the locker room before the game starts.
"Since the Supersonics left Seattle, this is the only opportunity to get young people here up close and personal with the NBA," Crawford said. ”
So the players who have gone from Seattle to the NBA will have the name of this league in their resumes, and Crawford will take special care of these young juniors, which is why Murray will thank him so much.
Coach Rivers once said: "These players should immediately and immediately give Crawford 5% of their salary, because without him, I guarantee they will not be able to enter the NBA." ”
Although Crawford was sharp on the pitch, he was very easy-going off the court. It is said that when he followed the Clippers to the NBA China Game, he stuffed red envelopes for all 24 team staff members and wrote special thank-you letters.
He often goes to campus to speak to the players, and for those students who are not good at studying, Crawford will patiently reason with the other party and tell the other party that if the GPA can reach 3.0, give them a new pair of sneakers. Friend Conroy said: "I believe that all the children in Seattle who have been in contact with Crawford have his phone number. ”
Crawford has long followed in the footsteps of his predecessors Peyton and Doug Christie and became the basketball totem of Seattle.
Crawford once said something that best reflected his character: "I don't like to discuss those statistics. When I was a kid, I couldn't tell you what Iverson or Jordan's shooting percentage was; even curry, I'm sure his fans couldn't tell Curry's bottom corner three-point shooting percentage and positive three-point shooting rate. ”
"They will only remember the emotion and excitement that comes with a beloved star when he throws a key goal. At that moment they would rush out of the house and shout at their neighbors to celebrate. The memory of that moment is eternal. ”
As for Crawford's style of play, there is a sentence that is very aptly described: the two players who are most difficult to draw in the NBA All-Star Game, one is Bai Qiao, and the other is Ke Liu.
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