Missed stories: Crawford and New York’s regrets!

On December 22, 2003, the Knicks' record was only 10 wins and 18 losses. The team owner James Dolan decided to fire Scott Lyden and chose basketball celebrity Smiling Assassin Thomas to take over as president of basketball operations. The Knicks finally entered the playoffs with 39 wins and 43 losses, but were eventually swept out by the Nets. Since taking power, Thomas has been committed to getting rid of the team left by his ex and trying to rebuild his own Knicks system. During this period, he has always maintained a strong interest in the Bulls' Jamal Crawford.

It was in his fourth season with the Bulls, and Crawford averaged 17.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game, and even scored 50 points in the third game of the regular season of the season. However, after the Bulls selected Ben Gordon, who was the same shooting guard as Crawford, with the 2004 draft, it basically marked that Crawford's career with the Bulls was almost over.

Although Crawford played as the scoring champion in the Bulls in the 2003-04 season, and was once considered the best among the young guards in the league, due to his only one year of college basketball training at the University of Michigan, Crawford still has great room for training and improvement in personal skills, such as many basic movements that need to be strengthened, offensive scoring methods are relatively monotonous, his shooting efficiency is not very stable, and his defensive end is also weak.

But even so, in Thomas' eyes, Crawford was still the Knicks' first reinforcement target in the free market at that time. To borrow his remarks at the time, if the Knicks can form the three troikas of Stephen Marbury, Alan Houston and Jamal Crawford, they will definitely be able to make a difference in the East. Especially considering that Houston had just had a knee surgery at that time, he needed a reserve candidate like Crawford.

"He is a talented player who can give us insurance. When Alan Houston fell unexpectedly, we can continue to move forward in the playoffs."

This was the answer given by Thomas at the time to his commitment to signing Crawford.

As for the player's perspective, Crawford's first test of the free market in his career, he finally received a good response. Under Thomas' leadership, the Knicks' pursuit has been relatively radical, but this deal has been dragged on for quite some time.

Judging from Crawford's ideas at that time, he expressed his love for Chicago many times, but the Bulls suffered from lack of right-hand assistants to support him, which made it difficult for him to maximize his value. If you choose to join the Knicks, your playing time may be reduced, but you can get a bigger stage. With Marbury and Houston around you, Crawford doesn't need to shoulder the team's responsibilities alone. Crawford can also absorb game experience from these seniors and can also play a more free way to express his value.

In the end, the Bulls and the Knicks reached a deal in early August 2004. The Bulls traded Crawford and Jerome Williams to the Knicks, while the Knicks sent Osella Harrington, Mutombo, Sezari Tribansky and Frank Williams.

Thomas completed his first free market reinforcement as he wished. Although it was done, the deal received a lot of criticism at the time, thinking it was a rather risky bet. Especially the new contract signed by Crawford, a seven-year, long-term contract of 56 million, while Jerome Williams has a four-year, 25 million contract.

More importantly, the contracts of the four players including Harrington and Mutombo given by the Knicks are only last year left, which means that Thomas invisibly helped the Bulls clear out 18 million salary space. Although it has been widely complained, what makes Knicks fans a little relieved is that Crawford played a performance that suits his value after coming to the Knicks.

As a defender with strong control and scoring ability, Crawford's scoring ability began to gain more playing time after Houston accidentally fell, and then continued to perform strongly. Occasionally, he could stage some scoring frenzy nights, which could also arouse crazy cheers from Knicks fans.

But at the same time, the Knicks also have to bear Crawford's shortcomings on the defensive end and some incomprehensible shooting options. However, for players who are extremely obsessed with victory in such a way, they will not stay on the same track, but will keep working hard to move forward.

After joining the Knicks, Crawford's progress and growth are quite obvious. He did play better than the Bulls' period. Even looking back at Crawford's career, the Knicks should be the best stage of Crawford's career.

In the 2007-08 season, Crawford scored the best season of his entire NBA career, averaging 20.6 points, 2.6 rebounds and 5 assists per game, a shooting percentage of 41%, 35.6% of three-point shooting percentage, and 86.4% of free throw percentage.

Judging from the player interview, Crawford is a player with a good personality and is respected by many teammates in the Knicks. A Seattle journalist Percy Allen who knew Crawford when he was 15 years old once commented on him that Crawford would try to satisfy everyone at all times. Based on this easy-going personality, when the Knicks asked Crawford to start from the team's bench in the 2005-06 season, he happily accepted this arrangement.

In fact, the reason why Thomas chose to recruit Crawford was mainly to supplement the Knicks' playoff competitiveness. Unfortunately, during the more than four seasons of Crawford playing for the Knicks, they not only never entered the playoffs, but also had a very dismal record in the regular season. The four-year regular season record was only 33 wins, 23 wins, 33 wins and 23 wins respectively..

Of course, all the blame cannot be attributed to Crawford, and there are too many factors behind the Knicks' failure. From Scott Lyden to Isaiah Thomas's Knicks period, it was a famous dark stage in team history. Until Downey Walsh chose to trade to play at the peak of his career in 2008, Crawford's Knicks career finally came to an end.

At that time, it was obvious that the Knicks saw a large number of players flocking to the free market in 2010 and began to clear out the team's salary space in advance. Even though Crawford was the best player in the Knicks at that time, he still could not avoid being cleared out of the team.

Looking back at Crawford's career in the Knicks, it is a pity from some perspectives. In 2008, the Knicks introduced D'Antoni, the best coach of the defender, as head coach, but Crawford was cleared out at the same time.

Crawford, who had already entered the team's starting shooting guard position at the time, was playing his peak performance, averaging 19.6 points, 1.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, a shooting percentage of 43.2%, a shooting percentage of 45.5% of three-point shooting percentage, and 76.1% of free throw percentage.

But that was also the last starting period of Crawford's NBA career. He then stayed for a short season with the Warriors, starting all 54 games in the first place, and then was traded to the Hawks, so Crawford started his sixth career.

After that, Crawford began to change his team status, gradually found his sixth man fate, found a victory model to integrate into the new team, helped the team enter the playoff stage many times, and wrote his sixth man legend.

Looking back at that dull Knicks time, Crawford seemed to be a few people who could make people shine. With his gorgeous ball-handling skills and scoring offense, the Knicks won one difficult victory after another, while also looking for a brand new role of his own.

Just from some perspectives, the best Crawford met the darkest Knicks, and it was also a regretful story I missed.