Jamal Crawford “Pissed Off” Michael Jordan Before Even Entering the NBA: “You Almost 40 Years Old?”

Published 04/16/2024, 9:03 PM EDT

Several NBA veterans have put Michael Jordan’s competitive side on notice, and stories like these are never-ending. The 6x champion has battled with almost every star that has driven through Chicago. One such was 3x 6MOTY Jamal Crawford, but this story is quite different from what other NBA veterans have said over the years. Imagine beating a player of Jordan’s caliber, that too even before entering the NBA. That is exactly what Crawford did and here’s how.

Crawford did not get to play with Michael Jordan just by luck. It was only because the Chicago Bulls icon liked Crawford’s game. Crawford had one of the best handles in the NBA back then, and MJ wanted to see if he would be able to defend it. The 44-year-old shared in his podcast, “Tim Grover, who I know through the draft process, calls me at six in the morning…I got up so fast and I drove downtown. I was studying at Evanston. I get in the gym at hoops, and he[Jordan] is in the weight room.”

This was the first time Crawford met Jordan, but later he battled against him. The former LA Clippers star continued, “In between sets he’s coming to speak. He’s like, ‘Yeah man, I like your game man. This summer we can work out together’…Fast forward to the summer, the first time we played against each other, different teams. I think our team won and I saw how mad he was. Pissed off! And he went sat in a corner. He reacted as if he lost a game 7. Dude you’re almost 40 years old?“

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That’s how much winning meant to MJ. He would go to any extent to get the best of his opponents. And after getting to know how good Crawford was, Jordan decided to use betting to get the best of him.

Michael Jordan and Jamal Crawford bet their cars in a shooting contest

Betting was another weapon that Jordan used in his favor. To get into his opponent’s mind, the 5x MVP would place high bets to increase the pressure. One of MJ’s scapegoats was Crawford, who lost his ride back home due to a silly bet. Jordan and Crawford would often have shooting contests. Initially, it was just $1000, then later it went to $5000, and then, the stakes kept rising from there on.

Crawford shared, “He asked which car I’d come into training, I replied ‘In a Mercedes’, he then said ‘I came in a Ferrari, shall we play for it?’.” Ferrari for a shooting contest sounded like an easy win for Crawford. However, Jordan went on to hit all five shots to take Crawford’s Mercedes home. See how Jordan used a huge bet to get into Crawford’s mind? So, the moral of the story is that you never mess with MJ!

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Written by:

Rohan Dharmalingam is an NBA beat writer at EssentiallySports, who extensively covers the Lakers. Be it a multimillion dollar deal breaking or a classic throwback, Rohan has covered the many themes and formats. Most notably, his coverage received a shoutout from the Purple & Gold icon Shaquille O'Neal and the rap legend 50 Cent, on Instagram.

Edited by:

Jayant Chhabra

Jamal Crawford “Pissed Off” Michael Jordan Before Even Entering the NBA: “You Almost 40 Years Old?”

Michael Jordan and Jamal Crawford bet their cars in a shooting contest

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