Jamal Crawford

Crawford was selected 8th overall in the 2000 NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers but was then traded to the Chicago Bulls in a draft-day deal that included the rights to Chris Mihm.[12] In his first year as a Bull, in 2000–01, Crawford struggled with his shot, converting only 35.2 percent from the field. Even so, the rookie was able to score in double-digits 10 times. He averaged 4.6 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists across 61 games (8 starting).[7]

In his second NBA season, 2001-02, injury limited Crawford to 23 games (6 starting). Nevertheless, he improved across nearly all statistical categories by averaging 9.3 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 2.4 assists as well as by converting 44.8 percent of his attempts from behind the arc.[7]

In his third campaign with the Bulls, 2002-03, Crawford emerged as a key component of coach Bill Cartwright's offense.[13] His per-game averages improved further to 10.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1 steal across 80 games (31 starting).[7] The Bulls would miss the playoffs with a 30-52 record.[14]

His fourth NBA season, 2003-04, would be his last in Chicago. Promoted to starting shooting guard, Crawford averaged 17.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.4 steals per contest.[7] On April 11, 2004, he came away with 50 points against the Toronto Raptors in his third to last game as a Bull.[15] The Bulls won in overtime, 114-108, but not before Crawford made 6 three-pointers and recorded 24 points in the fourth quarter alone. Before the start of the 2004–05 season, he was traded, along with Jerome Williams, to the New York Knicks in exchange for Dikembe Mutombo, Othella Harrington, Frank Williams, and Cezary Trybanski.[16]

Crawford with the New York Knicks

Crawford joined another young and rebuilding team in the New York Knicks. In his first year with the franchise, the 2004–05 season, he played 70 games (67 starting) and averaged 17.7 points, 2.9 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.4 steals per contest.[7] His scoring exceeded 20 points in many games, to include a notable win over the Charlotte Bobcats on December 4 where he had 41 points on 17-of-25 shooting.[17] The Knicks would fall short of the playoffs.[18]

In his second year in New York City, the 2005–06 season, he took a reduced sixth man role under head coach Larry Brown. Though it took some time, Crawford ended up embracing the new role.[19] He average 14.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 3.8 assists across 79 games (27 starting).[7] The Knicks, with a record of 23-59, fell short of the playoffs.[20]

Deciding to go in a new direction in 2006–07, the Knicks replaced Larry Brown with Isiah Thomas as head coach, the team's fourth replacement of that position in three years.[21] Crawford was limited to 59 games (36 starting) due to an ACL injury;[22] but he averaged 17.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 4.4 assists on the season.[23]

In 2007–08, he was put back in the starting lineup for all 80 games that he played. He averaged 20.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 5 assists.[24] Crawford provided the 23-59 Knicks with one of the few bright spots on January 26, 2007: He scored a career-high 52 points, with 16 of his shots being made consecutively and 8 of his three-pointers being one short of the franchise record set in 2002 by Latrell Sprewell.[25]

In 2008–09, he would play only 11 games for the Knicks before being dealt to the Golden State Warriors in a trade for Al Harrington.[26]

Crawford with the Warriors

Crawford proved an ideal fit in the run-and-gun offense of coach Don Nelson due to his three-point shooting and ball-handling ability as well as court-vision.[27] He played in 54 games for the Warriors in 2008–09 and started in each one. Crawford averaged nearly 20 points per contest as well as 4.4 assists and 1.5 rebounds.[7] During a 110–103 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on December 20, 2008, Crawford scored 50 points; thus he became the fourth player in NBA history—after only Wilt Chamberlain, Bernard King, and Moses Malone—to score 50+ points with three teams.[28] At the end of the season, the Atlanta Hawks acquired Crawford in a trade for guards Acie Law and Speedy Claxton.[29]

Crawford joined the Atlanta Hawks for their 2009–10 season. On January 15, he made a three-point shot at the buzzer to clinch a 102-101 victory over the Phoenix Suns.[30] In a win over the Los Angeles Clippers on February 3, 2010, Crawford set an all-time NBA record for most career four-point plays, surpassing Reggie Miller.[31] Backing up All-Star guard Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby, he averaged 18 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2 assists off the bench. Crawford was a leading candidate for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award and won the award in 2010. The Hawks, led by Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Mike Bibby, as well as by Crawford, qualified for the playoffs; this clinching was to be his first trip to the playoffs.[32] The Hawks would advance past the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games. Crawford led all scorers in the decisive game seven with 22 points. The team was subsequently swept by the Orlando Magic with a prime Dwight Howard at its helm.[33]

In the 2010–11 season, the Hawks fired coach Mike Woodson to bring on Larry Drew.[34] Though Crawford was coming off the bench and saw his averages decline from 2009–10, he had a solid season of averaging 14.2 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game.[7] He was yet again in consideration for the Sixth Man of the Year Award. Having made it to the playoffs as the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference, the Hawks beat the Orlando Magic in a close series, but not before Crawford made the game-clinching three-pointer with six seconds left in Game 3.[35] Thus the Hawks advanced to the conference semifinals, though they were then eliminated by the Chicago Bulls in six games.[36]

Crawford signed with the Portland Trail Blazers on December 15, 2011.[37] He averaged nearly 14 points in 60 games while leading the league in free throw percentage with a career-high 92.7 percent in the lockout-shortened season.[7]

On July 11, 2012, Crawford signed with the Los Angeles Clippers.[38]

Crawford being defended by Trevor Ariza

In the 2012–13 season, Crawford posted 16.5 points, 1.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 29.3 minutes in the 76 games he played.[7] He also finished 2nd place in voting for the 2013 NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award, edged out by J. R. Smith.[39] In the opening round of the playoffs, the Clippers were defeated by the Memphis Grizzlies in six games. During the playoffs that year, he averaged 10.8 points, 2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists.[7]

In the 2013–14 season, Crawford led the league's reserve players in scoring with 18.6 points per contest to go along with 3.2 assists and 2.3 rebounds. He came off the bench in 45 of 69 games he played in.[7]

On May 8, 2014, Crawford won the 2014 NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award, his second time of winning the honor. Crawford also helped the Clippers finish with their best record in franchise history (57–25).[40]

On December 8, 2014, during the last quarter of a game against the Phoenix Suns that the Clippers clinched 121–120 in overtime, Crawford was called for a loose ball foul after getting tangled with Suns' guard Eric Bledsoe at midcourt. Upon saying something to referee Mark Lindsay, Crawford received a technical, along with his first-ever ejection in his 976-game career.[41]

During a win over the Phoenix Suns on November 2, 2015, Crawford became the third shooting guard in NBA history to reach 16,000 points.[42] On November 14, he scored a game-high 37 points in a 101–96 victory over the Detroit Pistons.[43] On January 10, 2016, he recorded his 46th four-point play of his career in a 114–111 overtime win over the New Orleans Pelicans.[44] On April 8, 2016, he made a three-pointer with 0.2 seconds left and finished with 30 points in the Clippers' 102–99 overtime victory over the Utah Jazz.[45] On April 19, he was named NBA Sixth Man of the Year for the third time in his career. At 36 years old, he broke his own record, set in 2014, as the oldest winner of the award.[46]

Crawford re-signed with the Clippers on July 8, 2016.[47] By making two of four three-pointers against the New Orleans Pelicans on December 2, 2016, Crawford (1,962) passed Vince Carter (1,961) for No. 6 on the NBA's all-time list for made three-pointers.[48] With a three-pointer at the 2:06 mark of the second quarter in the Clippers' 118–109 loss to the Toronto Raptors on February 6, 2017, Crawford became the sixth NBA player to reach 2,000 made three-pointers. He joined Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, Jason Terry, Vince Carter and Paul Pierce in the 2000 club.[49] During the game, he also passed Eddie Johnson for No. 2 in career NBA bench scoring. His tally of 9,572 bench points trails only Dell Curry's 11,147.[49] He also surpassed Magic Johnson for 74th in career points scored.[50] On February 11 against Charlotte, he scored 22 points while shooting 5-of-8 on three-pointers. Crawford (2,009) subsequently passed Vince Carter (2,006) for fifth-most three-pointers made in NBA history.[51]

On July 6, 2017, the Clippers traded Crawford and a 2018 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks as part of a salary dump that cleared the way to acquire Danilo Gallinari from the Denver Nuggets by a sign-and-trade deal.[52] The Hawks waived Crawford the following day.[53]

On July 19, 2017, Crawford signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves.[54] Debuting for the Timberwolves during their season-opener on October 18, 2017, Crawford scored 10 points in a 107–99 loss to the San Antonio Spurs.[55] Two days later, he scored all 17 of his points in the fourth quarter and made a 3-pointer with 27.5 seconds left to help the Timberwolves hold off the Utah Jazz 100–97 in their home-opener.[56] During a 108–107 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on December 18, 2017, Crawford made a season-high 23 points in only 23 minutes, with 16 of them scored in the fourth quarter.[57] On March 30, 2018, he had a 24-point effort in a 93–92 win over the Dallas Mavericks.[58] In June 2018, Crawford won the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award.[59]

Crawford signed with the Phoenix Suns on October 17, 2018.[60] During a 128–110 victory over the New York Knicks on December 17, Crawford dished out a career-high 14 assists.[61] On January 6, 2019, in a 119–113 loss to the Charlotte Hornets, he finished with 16 points to join Dell Curry as the only NBA players to record 11,000+ career points as a reserve.[62] Per 36 minutes in the 2018–19 season, Crawford averaged 15.1 points to go along with a career-high of 6.8 assists.[63] In league history, only John Stockton has averaged more assists per 36 minutes in their 19th or later season.[4]  

On April 9, 2019, in a 120–109 season finale loss to the Dallas Mavericks, Crawford made NBA history by recording 51 points in his fourth 50-point game to date.[64] At 39 years old and 20 days, he thus broke two NBA records: the oldest player to tally 50+ points—held by Michael Jordan at 38 years and 315 days since December 29, 2001—as well as the most points scored by a player not in the starting lineup, held by Nick Anderson with 50 points since April 23, 1993.[4] During the game, Crawford shot 18-of-30 (60%) from the field, 7-of-13 (53.8%) from three-point range, and 8-of-9 (88.9%) from the free-throw line. He also had 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block coming off the bench. Down by as much as 31 in the third quarter, he rallied Phoenix back into the game, scoring 12 points in succession and bringing the score to 107-103 with 3:39 minutes left in the game. By scoring 28 and 27 points in the previous two games, Crawford joined Kobe Bryant as the only players in league history to record three consecutive 25+ point games in their 19th or later season.[4]

On July 9, 2020, the Brooklyn Nets announced that they had signed Crawford as a substitute player for the remainder of the 2019–20 season.[65] Four Nets players opted out of the NBA reboot in Orlando due to positive COVID-19 tests, which led to Crawford’s signing.[66] Crawford joined the Nets in Orlando to help out for the final eight games of the regular-season and first round of the post-season. He made his team debut on August 4, 2020, putting up 5 points and 3 assists in five minutes of action in a 119–116 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.[67] With that game, Crawford not only became the 29th player to play at the age of 40, but he was also the eighth player to play at least 20 NBA seasons, joining Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Robert Parish, Kevin Willis, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Kobe Bryant.[68]