NBA Games of the Week: Jamal Crawford edition

This week, we’ll be focusing on games surrounding our favorite sixth man, Jamal Crawford.

A while back, I was sitting at the cafe inside a Barnes and Noble in southern New Jersey. I was scribbling in my notebook, rarely looking up at all the commotion and noise around me. I hadn’t noticed it, really. I was focused and the ideas were flowing. At some point, it could’ve been an hour later or two hours later, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It shook me from my trance, and I flinched, confused and surprised. I turned to see an older woman, short, wearing a leopard-spotted jumpsuit.

“Wow, I wish I could write like that,” she said. She smiled, and her veneers caught the bright, yellow lights of the store, making them shine even more. “Where do you get your ideas?”

“Where?” I said. I thought for a second, not really sure how to answer while relishing the fact that I was feeling like one of those actors who got asked about their ability to cry. I didn’t want to mess this up. “I’m sitting on a park bench, and there I see the thousands of potential ideas walk past. Some good. Some bad. Some useful. Some useless. It’s too much. Too much searching and not enough feeling. So I close my eyes and wait. And I wait. At some point, I feel the flutter in my heart. I feel lighter, like this feeling could give me flight. I open my eyes and there it is standing in front of me. My idea.”

She sat there for a moment. She never said a word. She just gave a hmph and walked away.*

So when I was watching League Pass during the week, researching for the next Games of the Week piece, I went back to that moment. I went back to the park bench. I closed my eyes, hoping to feel an idea come to me. And that’s when Chris Denari said, for the first time, “Jamal Crawford checks into the game.”**

(*None of that happened.)

(**This did happen.)

Here are the picks for the games of the week, inspired by teams Jamal Crawford has played for. The reason is half of his six stops won’t be featured often unless they’re on the receiving end of a blowout or streak. They deserve something better, at least this time around. And Crawford’s career is near its end, so he deserves as much love as possible. His best stats, if available, from each season will be listed below the game.