NBA Veteran Says Michael Jordan Liked His Game Even Before Turning Pro

An NBA veteran revealed that Michael Jordan liked his game even before he turned pro.

Jamal Crawford is one of the few players who have been able to prolong their NBA careers. However, Crawford is still a free agent to this day despite proving that he can still compete at highest level.

All throughout his lengthy career, Crawford has been traded to different teams. But he was originally drafted by the Chicago Bulls. Before being drafted by the Bulls, one very important person noticed Crawford’s skills – Jordan.

In an exclusive interview with “Hoopswave,” the former 6^th Man of the Year said that MJ himself recognized his talents as an upcoming guard. According to Crawford, it was his dad who found out Jordan was interested in seeing his son play ball before getting drafted by the Bulls.

“It was unbelievable because the first morning my dad told me during the draft process. He was like, ‘Michael Jordan likes your game.’ This was before social media. I’m like, ‘dad there’s like no way you could notice.’ It’s like what is the chance of my dad even knowing something about Michael Jordan,” Crawford revealed.

It turned out, Crawford’s dad was right about MJ. One day, at the time Jordan was preparing for his second comeback, Crawford received a call from Tim Grover, former personal trainer of Jordan, and said MJ wanted to meet him. What happened next was something Crawford will never forget.

“Tim Grover calls me at like 6:30 in the morning. He’s like, ‘Hey MJ said you can meet him,’ and I’m like what, okay? This is when he was kind of prepping the year before he came back to the Wizards so it was a year before he actually came back. So I drove down to the gym, and I get there at seven o’clock. It’s just him and MJ in there. MJ has been there since 6:00 a.m. and he was doing his defensive slide drills by himself. He was 40 years old so instantly the work ethic stuck with me. I’m like okay it’s no accident why he is who he is,” Crawford recalled.

Since then, the pair played in several pickup games together. And as per Crawford, he and MJ “never lost a game in two years. ”

“He wouldn’t play a pickup game until I got there because I would help the Bulls and had to drive down there, and he wouldn’t play until I got there. We never lost in two years, and we played against everybody,” Crawford said.