Jamal Crawford Still Looking for the Right Fit
June 29, 2009 – 7:00 am by Lance Zimmerman
Four teams in the first nine years in the NBA says something about a player. Nine years in the NBA without going to the playoffs even once says more. Jamal Crawford has been shipped from Chicago to New York, to Golden State and now to the Atlanta Hawks.
Crawford never met a shot he didn’t like, which is the biggest knock on his game. Especially since he thinks he’s a point guard. It also is one of his strong suits, since Crawford can score in bunches.
Jamal still resides here in Seattle, and on a hot summer day one can usually find him with Slam Dunk Champion Nate Robinson and Jason Terry playing in a pick up game on the Greenlake basketball court. Problem for Crawford is that his game remains the same in those loosely oriented games as it does on the court in the NBA. I think Crawford should follow in the footsteps of fellow Seattle native Jason Terry and embrace a sixth man role. It could turn his career around.
Jamal Crawford was gracious enough to spend some time with KJR Radio in Seattle on Friday to elaborate more on being traded to the Atlanta Hawks.
Crawford was asked what the previous week has been like for him:
“It’s been a little crazy. I think everything just happened so fast. I knew what could happen with the situation with Golden State but it all happened so fast. In one day I had heard about it (the trade) and then it was done. I’m excited about where I’m going and I cant wait to get started.”
On what happened in Golden State between him and Coach Don Nelson:
“If you go back, and you can check the quotes, when I got there he (Coach Nelson) was like ‘Jamal’s a god send, we traded for him to end his career here’. Whatever happened, things just changed. The funny thing is, nothing happened. One day he just talked to me, I wanted to talk about it at the end of the season so we could just talk about it in the open. I went to the meeting and he said basically ‘if you don’t opt out this summer we’re going to trade you’. So it was a weird situation.”
On what he sees on the current Atlanta roster:
“There are so many athletic guys on the team. If you look at myself and (Mike) Bibby, if he comes back, and Flip Murray and Joe Johnson and Josh Smith, Al Horford and Marvin Williams its like it keeps going. Mo Evans, Zaza Pachulia. We’ve got some really good depth out there and hopefully we can put it together.”
Listen to Jamal Crawford on KJR in Seattle with Mike Gastineau
Tags: Acie Law, Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors, Jamal Crawford, Jamal Crawford traded
