The Crossover: Does Jamal Crawford Belong in the Hall of Fame?

Mannix and Beck look back at the long career of Jamal Crawford, who officially retired after 20 years in the NBA.

The following transcript is an excerpt from The Crossover NBA podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.

Chris Mannix: Howard, I want to take a minute and acknowledge the retirement of Jamal Crawford, who earlier this week announced he was walking away from the game. Crawford hasn’t played in a couple of years, but as you’ve seen on social media he has been staying in shape. I think he was hoping to get some kind of short-term contract during COVID. With all the things that were going on, it never really materialized. So he decides to retire after a 20-year NBA career. He finishes in the top 20 in the NBA in games played, he averaged right around 15 points per game in his career. He won three Sixth Man awards and was generally regarded as one of the best sixth men in the NBA during his time, maybe ever. And also regarded as one of the best people in the NBA, as you well know as someone that covered him in New York and other places extensively. So, your thoughts on the retirement of Jamal Crawford.

Howard Beck: Well, let me just start with this because as you know, Chris, you covered this league long enough, and guys that you cover go from being really young to old by NBA standards, and then they retire and it makes you feel old and if you do this enough years, you get a lot of those, and I’ve had too many. The thing with Jamal is, according to Basketball Reference, and I take this to be the gospel truth, he’s 42. Not only does it make me feel old that Jamal is 42, but the dude still does not look a day over like 26, it’s killing me. Jamal Crawford has never aged. I met him in 2004 when I first got to New York to cover the Knicks, he looks exactly the same, it kills me. I wish I had the secret of the fountain of youth that Jamal somehow discovered. 

But you said it, Chris, a lot of guys have retired in recent years in the social media era. You do not often see … short of a guy being a Hall of Famer, a multiple-time All-Star, you don’t see the outpouring we saw (Monday). And every player in the NBA at some point, it feels like gave Jamal their well-wishes and their respect and salute. Raymond Ridder, the Warriors’ great PR director, even tweeted. Like everybody tweeted about Jamal. I’m surprised we didn’t actually get a statement from the commissioner on this one. And it’s because Jamal Crawford is one of the few guys who is just universally beloved. Not only as a person but his game, right? Like, was Jamal the most efficient scorer ever? No. Did it matter? No. He was a creative scorer, he was a blast to watch, especially during the time I covered him with the Knicks. 

There were some bleak years, Jamal was one of the bright spots. He was going to at least make the night fun, entertaining, regardless. Just one of the all-time great guys, and great with us in the media, always generous with his time, always generous with his insights and a guy who, if you gently criticized in print the next day because maybe he had one of those 6-for-18 nights or something, he might say something just to kinda mess with me. But he never changed. Like it never affected our relationship. He was totally professional, good times and bad. I cannot say enough nice things about Jamal Crawford and I'm sure that nobody else could either.

Chris Mannix: I remember getting an email from him, a couple of times actually when the voting came out for Sixth Man. And I voted for him a couple of times for Sixth Man and he's thanking me for my vote. Like O.K., I didn't see that one coming at all. 

I'll admit, Howard, I was a little bit surprised that Jamal didn't get a short-term offer during COVID. The Celtics signed Joe Johnson. Guys were getting signed left and right, guys I've never heard of. And even if you didn't believe Jamal Crawford had a lot to offer, which I still think offensively, he could offer something to a team. The guy scored 50 back in 2019, he became the oldest player ever to score 50 points in a game. He's a tremendous locker room guy. To your point, having Jamal Crawford around is a net positive for a team. And most of these 10-day guys, a lot of them were playing because they were forced to, but some of them didn't, Joe Johnson didn't play more than garbage-time minutes for the Celtics. I was astonished that nobody gave him an offer. But he retires and I guess the question is, Hall of Fame, Jamal Crawford? Can we go there yet? Are we ready to have that conversation?

Howard Beck: I mean, on sentiment alone, on his popularity alone, if that's all it took, he'd be in. And on what he brought to the game, creative scorer, the three-time Sixth Man of the Year thing which has only been done a couple of times, probably not. 

But this is when you think sometimes we need ... like, if you hit certain statistical thresholds, you're almost automatically in, right? And there are guys who get in where you think, he was fine, he was really good, he stuck around a long time and put up a lot of numbers. But you’re not inspired by them, they don’t move you. Jamal moves you. And that’s the thing. Like he doesn’t have the statistical thresholds, He doesn’t have the championships, he doesn’t have the individual awards aside from Sixth Man. But there is this ineffable quality about Jamal and what he brought to the game. The joy he brought to the game and the contributions he made along the way where you could say, man, I wish there was a spot in the Hall of Fame for the Jamal Crawfords. But I don’t think there is. And so he probably is not. But, we need hall of … dudes who just play the game at a high level and who brought something unique and made it fun for all of us. And we want to reward them for all time.

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