Getty Jared Dudley of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jamal Crawford is still not on an NBA team and it confuses the life out of his childhood friend, Nate Burleson.
Burleson, a retired NFL vet, is currently an analyst on NFL Network and is a New York entertainment correspondent on Extra Extra and doesn’t understand NBA team’s lack of interest. “Yeah, if Lou Williams is on the team, and respect to Lou because he is a walking bucket,” he told me.
“Jamal was the walking bucket for the last two decades.”
Back in November, I’m told that both the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors had expressed some interest in Crawford earlier this season.
Nothing materialized.
A 20 year NBA vet, Jamal Crawford has career averages of 14.6 points and 3.4 assists per game.
The eighth pick in the 2000 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls out of the University of Michigan ranks seventh among NBA players in regular-season three-point field goals made. Crawford, 39 is also an all-time leader in four-point plays in the NBA.
Crawford literally scored 50 points last season as a member of the Phoenix Suns. That accomplishment made Crawford the oldest player in NBA history to score 50 points.
GettyJamal Crawford, NBA free agent
Last season, Crawford, 40, averaged 7.9 points, 3.6 assists, and 1.3 rebounds in 64 games.
“It is odd that Jared Dudley is on a roster and Jamal Crawford isn’t,” Nate Burleson told the Scoop B Radio Podcas.
“Jamal has NEVER went out and said I deserve this and this amount of money – he’s a hooper’s hooper. I know he’s made a ton of money and he’s worth umpteenth million, but when it comes to playing basketball it always basketball over cash. You never heard about Jamal Crawford in a contract dispute, so it can’t be money. And you’re looking at the bottom of everybody’s roster, it can’t be talent because there’s a lot of dudes out there that – quite frankly, don’t match up to his skill set. I just feel like maybe that style of player is only necessary on a handful of teams and those teams have their version of that. Because if you’re asking him to come off the bench, a majority of those teams they just want role players to come off the bench. We don’t need you to get buckets. We got our starters for that. The handful of teams that do play within that style or that system, I think that they found their guy and they already have that dude on the bench.”