Seattle native Jamal Crawford played for nine teams between 2000 and 2020 in his NBA career, but it’s his hometown team that had the biggest impact on him. Although he never played for the SuperSonics, they played a huge role in Crawford living out his NBA dream.
Crawford joined Kenny Mayne to talk about the importance of Seattle basketball, how he felt when the Sonics moved, and when they might make a return on the latest episode of Audacy’s Hey Mayne podcast.
“I would love to play a role of some sort in whatever Seattle, the Sonics came back,” Crawford said (50:48 in player above). “I’m one of the ones who truly love our city, who truly embody what it’s about. I would love to. I’d be honored to.”
“I would love to be a part,” Crawford continued. “Just the history and the connection with the city. I would love to be a part of the Sonics.”
Crawford never thought that the Sonics would leave in the first place. They were in a transition after the Ray Allen years but had a young budding superstar in Kevin Durant, as well as Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green.
“You see these young stars coming. It’s Seattle... It’s a great place. We didn’t think we’d lose the team,” Crawford said.
“So when it actually happened, I think everybody was just shocked. Everybody stopped for a second. They’re really gone?" he continued. "And I was even one of the ones like we’ll get them back in five years to now, it’s like whoa that was 14 years ago. But now I actually do believe we’ll get them back soon enough.”
The Sonics' involvement in the community allowed Crawford and other youth players to feel a real connection to the team and game.
“If I saw Gary Payton, he happened to come to my high school games. He gave me a couple words of advice that stuck with me. When you have pros like that in your community supporting you, it gives you a whole different fuel,” Crawford said.
Crawford gives back to the community with his Pro-Am league, The CrawsOver, and getting involved with the NBA's potential return to Seattle would just take that one step further.
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