Jamal Crawford went from occasional appearances to full-time analyst on TNT’s Tuesday panel alongside Shaquille O’Neal in the 2023-24 season. Charles Barkley also endorsed him in his retirement speech, “I’m going to pass the baton to either Jamal Crawford or Vince Carter.” But now he confirmed his free agency, beginning this season.

At the beginning of his career, Crawford was doing game broadcasts for NBA League Pass alongside Quentin Richardson in November 2021. Since then, he has impressed many, including Barkley and clearly the management at TNT. Initially replacing Dwyane Wade on the Tuesday panel, Carwford found himself in the booth with Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller for playoff games. “Wow. What a blessing,” he had said.

Seems like the move was rightly recognized. A fan on X, applauded the 44-year-old’s commentary stint and hoped to see him come back next year. But to everyone’s surprise, the update was not what anybody hoped for.

“Thank you! I’m actually a tv free agent. So will see where my tv journey takes me…”

Jamal Crawford’s contract with the network reported expired by the end of last season. But so is its deal with NBA the next campaign. “Weird,” he had called the rights moving after over three long decades. He was fond of not just his team but the Inside the NBA crew as well, quite dearly.

“They’ve been like the soundtrack to our basketball lives,” Crawford told Lou Williams on The Underground Lounge podcast. “There’s people that come turn on TV just to watch them. Some don’t even watch the game, they would laugh at Chuck or Shaq or Ernie put ’em in their place or Kenny or whatever.”

But as Chuck and Ernie Johnson have confirmed to continue, Crawford will be looking forward to another broadcasting team. As he expressed, “Definitely feel like I’ll be calling games though.” With NBC and Amazon starting anew, the former LA Clippers star may find a home there or come back to take over Barkley, if ever, as he wished. But for now, thanks to the appreciation, Crawford knows, his unexpected career trajectory wasn’t in vain.

Jamal Crawford had other role in mind before

Speaking to Forbes, Crawford thought of a front office role for the longest time. “I always loved putting teams together, and visualizing what it’d be like,” he added. As stated by him, JC’s switch from NBA to media came after a rough period of his life.

“It was seamless after going through a bit of a depression,” Crawford said in the interview. Despite scoring 51 points against the Mavericks, the Phoenix Suns showed no interest. That, disappointingly or not, turned out to be his last match for them. He knew he was not putting up the best numbers daily, but the performances were decent enough to warrant a call for a place.

“Besides the 51-point game, I was averaging over 31 in my last month in the league, even at 39 off the bench… So why am I not being signed? And six or seven teams wanted me in their front office, so I couldn’t figure it out,” Crawford said in the interview.

Finding peace in coaching his son thereon and eventually the broadcasting stint, Crawford soon found his space. He wishes to be in media as he was at basketball. We await.

“Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.”