Jamal Crawford is one of the silkiest players in NBA history.
‘J-Crossover’ is a three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year and one of the rare players who actually impressed Michael Jordan.
The retired 44-year-old shooting guard recently appeared on ‘Podcast P with Paul George‘ where he told an untold story about playing against MJ as a youngster.
During his heyday with the Bulls, Air Jordan would often host summer runs and pickup games, mainly in Chicago, against fellow pros, collegiate standouts, or overseas players.
The six-time NBA champion was a fan of Crawford’s after he entered the league in 2000, and invited him to play in one of his summer scrimmages.
“The summer comes, everybody talks about how we were on the same team,” Crawford recalled.
“Actually, the first day I played against him and my team won and he was p*****. Like he would sit in the corner and he was p*****.
Crawford said he then got a call from MJ’s personal trainer, Tim Grover, later in the day, asking him to come back to the gym for another pick-up game.
“‘MJ’s not starting the game till you get here,” Grover allegedly told Crawford. “He’s waiting on you.”
“I’m like, oh s***. All right,” Crawford added.
“So from that moment on, we never lost for two straight summers. We’re playing against Penny [Hardaway]. We’re playing against Stefon Marbury, Paul Pierce.
“Matter of fact, even Charles Barkley came. Because he was thinking about coming back at that time with MJ.”
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PG13 went on to ask Crawford what it was like playing against the basketball GOAT and how he adjusted his game.
“I came in as a point [guard], and I’m playing with Jordan. So I really and it’s so weird — there’s probably two or three times in my life where I felt my game jump up like a level or two, and that was one of those times,” Jamal relayed.
“I don’t know for a fact, but it felt like I hit 80 per cent of my shots off of him that summer. Like, I felt my game going to a whole other level,” Crawford claimed.
“And it was making its way around the thing, like, ‘Man, that little Bulls guard,’ because I hadn’t done s*** yet. ‘Man, that Bulls guard can go. I’m telling you, that Bulls guard can go.'”
Crawford also recalled throwing an errant pass he thought Mike was going to scold him for.
However, the near 40-year-old simply scooped up the ball and finished the kind of highlight reel play he became world renowned for.
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“I remember one time I threw a full court. I’m like, ‘oh s***. I threw that too far. ‘
“Man, this man at 40 years old jumped up with one hand. Yeah, he dribbled the ball and dunked with one hand. I was like, ‘Oh s***,’ like, it looked like some Bulls s***. I’m like, ‘Oh, this is crazy.’ But he was so cold,” Crawford revealed.
Jamal also told the story about how MJ picked him to appear as a young MJ in a classic Gatorade commercial with him.
The ‘MJ vs MJ’ – or ’23 vs 39′ – commercial debuted in 2003 when a 39-year-old Jordan was playing for the Wizards.
The advert shows Jordan working out and putting up shots alone in a gym before a door opens and another Michael Jordan walks in.
Only this is a young MJ, complete with a No.23 Bulls jersey and pair of red-and-black Air Jordans with hops for days.
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The enthusiastic rookie and wily veteran go 1-on-1 and trade trash talk before the more experienced version shows his class.
At the end, an even younger avatar of MJ – one from his college days in North Carolina – steps in and asks, ‘who got next?’
Few people know it, but Crawford actually played the young version of MJ in the ad.
“We shot it at the United Center,” Crawford said.
“I was only there probably four hours from my part. He was there all day.
“And MJ was like, ‘no, JC, don’t go to dunk and s***, man, just play.’
“So if you go back and watch that commercial and slow, you can see my little skinny arm, little peanut head,” Crawford joked.
“I start reaching for the ball, and [MJ] is like, ‘you reach, I teach,'” Crawford remembered.
In a separate interview, Crawford revealed that while he did all of the 1-on-1 action, the dunking was actually performed by Kevin Daley, a 6-foot-6, 210-pound MJ lookalike who’d been playing on the Harlem Globetrotters travelling team.
The creative agency behind the ad performed a cyber scan on Jordan’s head, shoulders and body and were able to create an incredibly accurate digital sculpture of a young Jordan which they superimposed on Crawford and Daley.
Their digital wizardry worked like a charm and they created one of the coolest sports commercials ever made.