For years, Jamal Crawford was the gold standard of NBA reserves. He managed to stay on an NBA court beyond his 40th birthday, but now, more than two decades after his career began, he is finally hanging it up and retiring from professional basketball. "Goodbye to the game, all the spoils the adrenaline rush," Crawford said in a tweet posted late Sunday night. "Thank you basketball, I owe you everything."
Crawford was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 2000, but across his nearly two decades in the NBA, he managed to play for quite a few other teams. Before he was done, he suited up for the Knicks, Warriors, Hawks, Blazers, Clippers, Timberwolves, Suns and Nets. In that time, he became the NBA's premier bench scorer. The Seattle native averaged 14.6 points per game and won the league's Sixth Man of the Year award three times, once with the Hawks and twice with the Clippers.
“ Goodbye to the game, all the spoils the adrenaline rush.”
Thank you basketball, I owe you everything …..✌🏾
In addition, Crawford is revered as one of the best teammates of his generation. In 2018, he won the NBA's Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award, and that reputation helped him find work far beyond what is considered the expiration date for most players.
Crawford was a full-time NBA reserve at the age of 38 for the Suns. In his final game for Phoenix, he became the oldest player in NBA history to score 50 or more points at 39 years and 20 days of age.
That would have been an appropriate time to retire, but Crawford still felt he had basketball in him. He managed to convince the Nets to give him a try in the Orlando bubble after his 40th birthday, and afterward, he still held out hope that he could return to the league and contribute. But nearly two years beyond that final showing with the Nets, the 42-year-old Crawford is finally ready to acknowledge that even if he can still get buckets, his time as an NBA player has come to a close.
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