Michael Jordan’s Opponent Reveals How Bulls Legend Destroyed Summer Hoops

Michael Jordan is many of your favorite basketball player’s favorite basketball players.

Late Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant was a fan.

So is Jamal Crawford.

Appearing on a recent episode of the Scoop B Radio Podcast, NFL Network analyst Nate Burleson, who grew up with Craword told me that the fellow Seattle, Washington native grew up watching MJ’s ‘Come Fly With Me’ movie tons of times. “We wake up and I would want to flirt with girls at the park, my brother would want to go hoop at the park and Jamal would want to stay in and watch ‘Come Fly With Me’ every single day,” recounted Burleson.

“He’d eat cereal and he’d eat Top Ramen and sit in front of that TV every day and for us it’s like, dog come on…you can’t watch it for the twentieth time in three days.”

Jamal Crawford recently stopped by Scoop B Radio and discussed his respect for MJ and shared the first time he met His Airness.

Check out a snippet of our conversation below:

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: How old were you the first time you met Michael Jordan?

Jamal Crawford: The first time I met him I was twenty. My dad actually told me that he liked your game and was like c’mon…how would you know that the greatest player ever said that he liked my game? And he never told me how. He said he really liked your game. Fast forward. I get drafted by the Bulls, I get chance to meet him and he told me that I liked your game. I’m like what?…After I leave talking to him for the first time, I talked to my dad and everything and he still didn’t tell me how he knew, right? So then it comes full circle. What happened is that Ahmad Rashad went to school the same time my dad went and you Michael Jordan and Ahmad are best friends, Ahmad Rashad told him that. And that’s how he was so sure that Jordan said that he likes my game.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: So you met him at 20. What was that experience like?

Jamal Crawford: It was crazy. Tim Grover actually called me to meet at the gym and come early. I can’t believe that I’m driving downtown Evanston Apartments at the time, I get in the weight room it’s myself, Michael and Grover. I’ll never forget. He was doing a defensive slide on this machine and we were talking to us three saying to me some work out. Fast forward to summer. We’re playing pickup and we’re both on the same team everyday and we NEVER lost. And when I say we never lost, I’m not talking about taking a loss that day, I’m talking about not talking a loss throughout that day We didn’t lose the whole summer. It got to the point that Mike wouldn’t play until I got there. I had to work out with the Bulls first and then I could go down there and play. I had to do my work downtown. So, we never lost, our relationship evolved, I seen his house, he picked me to be in his commercial to play as young Jordan and then always looked out for me and I got a chance to see him a couple years ago. My son went to his camp and he told me son I know your dad I used to take care of him, I looked out for your dad. I got the ultimate respect just by playing catch-up to be around him in that way.

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