You remember Jordan Crawford? He’s the Xavier college player that dunked on LeBron James in a pickup game after LeBron’s skills camp back in the summer of 2009. Which would have been no big deal — LeBron tried to rotate over on defense and was a little late in a pickup game, it happens — but some Nike guys went around the gym being bullies and collecting the videotapes. That made it a must-see video and a big incident. Well done, Nike!
Well, it turns out, Jordan Crawford do more than dunk.
He’s had a couple good games in the NBA of late — notably 27 points against the Bulls last week — and is trying to make most of a chance with the Washington Wizards, as Frank Hanrahan tells us at CSN Washington.
Crawford was buried on a deep bench in Atlanta, but he came to the Wizards (part of the Kirk Hinrich deal) and he’s getting his chance.In 10 games with the Wizards so far, Crawford has shown flashes of his scoring and some time his passing, averaging 11 points and 2.2 assists a game. He has a tendency to force 3-point shots, and rarely makes them, hitting on just 18 percent of 33 tries.
“He is playmaker and he has the ability to score,” Wizards coach Flip Saunders said about Crawford. “He is extremely talented. He has no fear going against anybody.”
Against Chicago on Tuesday night, Crawford got his second start of his career, and he came out in attack mode, scoring 21 first-half points as the Wizards kept it close with the Eastern Conference leading Bulls for one half. Crawford finished with a career high 27 points and played all 48 minutes, mostly in part because starting shooting guard Nick Young, was out with a knee injury.
Crawford plays young and a little bit impatient. But he needs to be a little bit impatient. He needs to show he can play at this level and catch people’s eye. There’s a lot left to learn and develop for him, but he knows if he can score he will get longer to develop and show the rest of his game. Although word to the wise Jordan, NBA coaches are not fond of guys who can’t hit the three shooting it a lot.
Still, he’s proving he’s more than just a YouTube highlight guy. He may stick a little while.