Whenever it was expressed that any team needs to add a veteran scorer throughout the entire 2019-20 NBA season, Jamal Crawford was one of the first names to come to mind. And while his age (40) was often brought up, so was the fact he scored 51 points in his last game of the 2018-19 season.
Yet it took a hiatus and countless Nets players either getting injuring or opting out of the bubble because of COVID-19 for Crawford to sign a deal with Brooklyn.
Unfortunately for Crawford, his first opportunity to log minutes in a Nets uniform was cut short by a hamstring injury. Then, Crawford’s first Nets appearance became his lone one — for 2019-20, at least.
But the veteran guard still managed to draw everyone’s attention in the few minutes he logged in the bubble.
“I had been practicing and the practices for my teammates and for the coaches and for everybody with the Nets,” Crawford said on the Hoop Narrative podcast. “The game looked just like the practices did, so it didn’t shock them. The only part that shocked them was, ‘Man, he hasn’t played an actual game in 16 months.’ And I’m not just coming back against a team that was weak. At the time [the Milwaukee Bucks] were No. 1 in the league.
“I had three assists before I took a shot. So once I hit the first shot, then I scored again and I’m looking at who’s guarding me. And I’m looking at their eyes, and now they’re starting to look around for help when I’m coming down the court. I’m like ‘Oh I got ’em.’ … I promise you, I was like ‘I’m about to paint a masterpiece.’ I promise you, every minute I would’ve played — in five minutes I had five points and three assists, if I would’ve played 20 minutes I was going to have 20 points and eight assists. … I thought it would take longer to come back, [but] it was back.”
As wild as the idea may seem, Crawford feels his brief appearance for the Nets made more of an impact for him than his 51-point game at the end of the 2018-19 season.
“In those five minutes, I had so many messages,” he said. “I didn’t have as many messages as when I signed [with the Nets], but I had messages from people in the league like, ‘Man, look like you ain’t even miss a beat.’
“In a weird way, it was almost like those five minutes did for me what the 50-point game couldn’t do. It was like, [after] those five minutes, people was like, ‘Oh he’s still got it. We gonna holler at him next year.'”
As a result, Crawford has ‘no doubt’ he’ll be playing in the NBA next season.
“I, realistically, think it’s going to happen,” he said. “And I don’t think it will take as long as it did before.”
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