National Basketball Association

Jordan Crawford is on a mission

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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He was unreal that night. Jordan Crawford displayed his entire arsenal, his vast array of scoring abilities, from inside and out, finishing with a career high 41 points on 16-of-28 shooting from the field. That’s a feather in the cap for most players, but Crawford will only remember the performance as his last regular season game in an NBA uniform.

Crawford was thrust into the limelight in 2009 when video emerged of a wiry, 20-year-old dunking on LeBron James in a pickup game. Poof. Just like that, everyone knew the name Jordan Crawford. At Xavier he followed up those 15 minutes of fame by devouring the Atlantic 10 Conference to the tune of 20.5 points a night on 46.2 percent shooting and 39.1 percent 3-point shooting.

Look, not all can rise to the occasion time and time again. Even talented young men can succumb to the pressures of fame and notoriety, but Crawford thrived on it and used that expanded stage to vault himself to the NBA.

And then, after playing for four teams in five years, the enigmatic, crossover-happy, score-at-will guard was suddenly without a home in the league.

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Crawford wakes up with the urge to eat. A moment of exasperation waffles through him as he realizes he cannot simply fulfill the basic need of eating without the help of another. He’s in China and has to go everywhere with a translator. It’s quite cumbersome, but such is life when you take a job halfway across the globe.

Crawford relayed the experience to The Step Back in two terms, “From a basketball standpoint it was great. The fans over there really do love the game and they love the Americans who come over to play”.

He continued with the other side, “The off court life hit me kinda hard. I needed a translator to go anywhere. I had to find out what to eat and how to eat. It was a humbling experience but I understand how to take the good and the bad and put it to use”.

The Chinese Basketball Association loves any player who can come into a game and light up the scoreboard, so naturally Crawford was very popular. Last season he averaged 43.1 points per game on 31.4 shot attempts (48.9 percent shooting) for Tianjin.

The term “green light” is often associated with players who can shoot anytime they want and in China, Crawford’s light was ultra neon green, like a cheap motel’s vacancy sign.