“I thought I’d be in a front office,” Jamal Crawford uttered previously. However, a year before retiring from the hardwood, the Wolves star set on his broadcasting career. In the years that followed, the Wolves star has often filled in for the NBA on TNT and Inside the NBA. This aspect could even potentially favor Crawford as the replacement for Charles Barkley. A huge note indeed. Briefly reminiscing on this unexpected journey, the former point guard had a realization of triumph to share from early days.

It was on ‘The Old Man & The Three’ podcast with JJ Redick that Crawford went on to revisit his time as a broadcaster. The most memorable of the moments for the 6th MOTY was seeing Victor Wembanyama in person. He recalled Wemby having one of those runs where he blocked, rebounded, dunked, and hit a three back-to-back.

And watching him play, his reaction came as an instant statement. “Wembanyama’s the creative player that create-a-players-create”. While Reggie failed to comprehend this statement, Crawford remembers explaining, “I said, ‘Well, think about it. If LeBron and KD were playing 2k… and they’re creating a player, ‘I want to play a 7’4″… Want to run like a gazelle… I Want to block every shot… Want to step back threes.’ And they were like, wow. And it just came out like, you’re right…”

The response to his commentary made Crawford say, “Okay, I have done something well.” Well, Redick and Charles Barkley agree.

Charles Barkley announced his retirement after game 4 of the NBA Finals. “next year is going to be my last year on television,” he stated of his best-loved role. But as he moves on from his near 25-year role on Inside the NBA, he ensured to name his replacements – Steve Smith, Vincent Carter, or Jamal Crawford. While Chuck acknowledged Crawford’s skills therein, Redick today mentioned how he feels that J Crossover is creative with his way of broadcasting. So much so that Redick believes JC as a broadcaster reflects how he was as a player.

Notably, the former LA Clippers star earned fame as a unique player for his exceptional ball-handling skills and a knack for creating his own shot off the dribble. One of his most popular moves was his crossover dribble, which earned him nicknames like ‘J Crossover’ and ‘Crawssover Crawford’. This instance of his analogy of Wemby as a player somewhat hints he could be a major prospect for Charles Barkley’s replacement. The reasons that led him on this path stem from a rather unkind phase.

Jamal Crawford’s transition from a player to a broadcaster

“I thought I’d be in a front office, and I always thought that pretty much my whole career,” Crawford once said, as per an article by Forbes. “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. He recalled the time when, despite delivering a decent performance, no team considered him. Notably, although his performance witnessed a decline in his last few seasons, J Crossover scored some impressive numbers for Phoenix Suns towards the end of 2019 regular season. In fact, in his last game with the franchise, he scored 51 points against the Mavericks.

“I was like ‘I know I can still play, I won Teammate Of the Year’. 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.

Crawford then found peace in coaching his son until his television career became a recurring thing. Now, with a name like Charles Barkley bidding farewell to industry, it’s to be seen what else the future holds for Crawford.

Stay tuned for more such updates. And to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the Reese-Clark rivalry and more, watch this video.