On August 5, 2004, the Knicks acquired Jamal Crawford and Jerome Williams from the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Othella Harrington, Frank Williams, Cezary Trybański, and Dikembe Mutombo.
The Knicks were already a few years into a plague of nine-straight losing seasons when Crawford’s ship reached our shore. Those teams rarely gave you much to care about. Jamal, at least, gave you a reason to look up from a book while the TV played in the background.
The former Michigan Wolverine arrived as a gifted young scorer whose imagination occasionally exceeded the structure that contained him. Drafted eighth in 2000 by the Cleveland Cavaliers, he won Sixth Man of the Year in his second season with the Knicks and would win it twice more before retiring.
It’s fair to wonder what Crawford might have become in a healthier basketball ecosystem. The Isiah Thomas years were dark, dark, dysfunctional times. During his four-plus seasons in New York, Jamal played under six different head coaches and averaged 17.6 points in 299 games before being traded to Golden State in November 2008.
There were nights when ‘J-Crossover’ rose above the morass and brought some beauty to the disorder. Like when he dropped a career-high 52 points on Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat (1/26/2007).
Crawford’s NBA career lasted 20 seasons, spread out over nine teams. In retirement, he still has a toe in the Knicks world. Last season, he served as a part-time analyst for MSG Network, covering around 10 games (filling in while Clyde enjoyed the island life). His growing national broadcasting profile may limit those appearances going forward, but whenever he returns, Crawford serves as a welcome reminder of one of the few bright lights from a particularly gloomy chapter in franchise history.
Go Knicks.
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