Gee Scott interviews NBA great Jamal Crawford
Feb 8, 2022, 5:13 AM | Updated: Feb 9, 2022, 8:35 am
Jamal Crawford. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
On episode six of “Leaving a Legacy,” Gee Scott interviews former NBA great Jamal Crawford.
Crawford — who spent 20 years in the league, and won NBA Sixth Man of the Year three times — was drafted in 2000 to play for the Chicago Bulls. He told Gee that as a Michael Jordan fan growing up, it was a dream come true to hear the GOAT had heard about him and invited him down to the gym.
“Fast forward to that summer, I actually get a chance to work out with him,” Crawford said. “While I’m working out with him, he’s teaching me different things, … so we were on teams together in pickup for two straight years and never lost one game. And Gee, when I say one game, I don’t mean we won five that day and they won four. We didn’t lose one single game within that day for two straight years. We never lost and it was unbelievable.”
Crawford said some people are motivated to accomplish their goals, but Michael Jordan is driven.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “He never turned it off.”
Crawford said he realized he was good at basketball when he was 8 years old. Gee revealed to him that his MLK game was the first he saw 23 years ago as a Chicago transplant looking for good basketball in Seattle.
Crawford said for a lot of guys, playing Division 1 college basketball was the dream, but he had his sights set higher. And he put in the work with Doug Christie, who was drafted 17th overall by the Seattle SuperSonics in 1992.
“Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, they started coming to my high school games and really supporting me — when I had that at 16, that was a game changer,” he said. “They said, ‘you can make it.'”
In his “Leaving a Legacy” podcast, Gee takes listeners on a journey to discover how some of our most influential public figures want to leave their legacy on this world, and how his own experience can be contributed to the shoulders of giants that came before him.
Other guests on “Leaving a Legacy” include former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver and current CBS Mornings host Nate Burleson; the “King of Twitter” Josiah Johnson; Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price; and Amanda Knox, an author, activist, and journalist who was wrongly convicted in the murder of her roommate and imprisoned in Italy.
Gee is the co-host of KIRO Newsradio’s “Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin Show,” which can be heard weekdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., or on demand at MyNorthwest.com.
“Leaving a Legacy” is available on all podcast platforms, and listeners can also watch each episode on the KIRO Radio YouTube channel. Text LEGACY to 888-973-5476 for more information.