3-time Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford officially retires after 20 NBA seasons

Ben Rohrbach

Jamal Crawford, the three-time Sixth Man of the Year and beloved teammate, officially announced his retirement from the NBA late on Sunday night after playing parts of 20 seasons for nine different teams.

"Goodbye to the game, all the spoils the adrenaline rush," Crawford wrote on social media on his 42nd birthday, quoting lyrics from Jay Z's 2003 "The Black Album." "Thank you basketball, I owe you everything."

Crawford's career remarkably predates those lyrics by three years. The godfather of Seattle's prep basketball boom, Crawford entered the 2000 draft after a solid and somewhat controversial freshman season at the University of Michigan. Drafted eighth overall, Crawford spent his first eight-plus seasons playing for the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks, mostly as a starter on terrible teams in the 2000s.

His reputation as a scintillating ball-handler and scorer did not prevent him from being traded three times before the end of his rookie contract extension. Crawford found his niche in his first season on the Atlanta Hawks in 2009-10, averaging 18 points on 45/38/86 shooting splits in 31 minutes per game off the bench, making his playoff debut on an Eastern Conference semifinals run and winning his first of three Sixth Man of the Year awards. Only 35-year-old Hawks reserve Lou Williams has as many Sixth Man accolades.

Crawford was a staple of the Lob City Los Angeles Clippers in the mid-2010s, backing up All-NBA point guard Chris Paul for five consecutive 50-win seasons and capturing Sixth Man honors in 2014 and 2016.

Jamal Crawford won two of his three Sixth Man of the Year awards over a five-year stretch with the Los Angeles Clippers. (Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)
Jamal Crawford won two of his three Sixth Man of the Year awards over a five-year stretch with the Los Angeles Clippers. (Victor Decolongon/Getty Images) (Victor Decolongon via Getty Images)

By the end of his run in L.A., Crawford's inefficiencies as a shooter and defender sent him bouncing around the league again in his late 30s, when he served as a veteran mentor, just as he had done throughout his career for Seattle-area prospects. Alumni of Crawford's annual pro-am Crawsover League include NBA All-Stars Zach LaVine and Dejounte Murray, along with this year's potential No. 1 overall pick, Paolo Banchero.

Crawford played 80 games for the 2017-18 Minnesota Timberwolves in their first playoff bid since 2004, the last of his 16 straight double-digit scoring seasons. He joined the Phoenix Suns on the eve of the 2018-19 campaign and appeared in 64 games. His 51-point effort at age 39 on the final day of the regular season made him the oldest player ever to score 50 points, eclipsing Michael Jordan. Crawford's 51 points are also a single-game record for a reserve. He is the only player ever to score 50 points for four different teams.

Crawford did not find an NBA home for the 2019-20 season until the Orlando bubble, where he joined a depleted Brooklyn Nets roster and played only six minutes of one game, scoring five points. He has not played since, finishing his career with 19,419 points, the most by anyone never to make an All-Star team.

He retired as the NBA's all-time leader in four-point plays with 55 (plus five more in the postseason).

Crawford's 20 seasons are also the most by a player who never appeared in a conference finals. Few, if any, players have made so great an impact on the game of basketball without playing on its biggest stages.

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Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach

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