NBA
Jamal Crawford Joins Knicks Broadcast Team
Jamal Crawford backing up Walt “Clyde” Frazier sounds like a match for a New York Knicks fantasy draft but it’s reportedly set to become a reality on MSG Network’s depth chart.
Per Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, Crawford is set to join the Knicks’ television network as a game analyst behind Frazier. Though MSG has not made the move official, Crawford is set to call “about 10 games” while Frazier remains the team’s primary color commentator.
Crawford made a name for himself as one of the most reliable reserves in NBA history, winning a record three Sixth Man of the Year titles (tied with Lou Williams) during a 20-year playing career that began as the eighth pick of the 2000 draft. He played his first four tours with the Chicago Bulls before he was traded to the Knicks in a deal that involved the late Dikembe Mutombo.
The Knicks hosted one of Crawford’s longest NBA stays, as his five-year tenure (2004-08) was the longest he stayed with one team next to five seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers (2012-17). During his time in Manhattan, Crawford averaged a career-best 17.6 points and 4.4 assists before he was traded to the Golden State Warriors for Al Harrington in 2008. Crawford also played in Atlanta, Portland, Minnesota, and Phoenix before closing his career with a single game with the Brooklyn Nets in 2020.
Sine then, Crawford has entered the broadcasting game, as he has earned positive reviews for his work on TNT. He became a de facto free agent once TNT was left off the NBA’s new television negotiations and was reportedly drawing interest from new national partners like Amazon and NBC.
Ahead of Crawford, the fan favorite Frazier is set to reprise his role as Knicks raconteur alongside play-by-play man Mike Breen. He previously told Knicks on SI that he plans to “cut back on road games” in June 2023 but has no immediate plans to fully relinquish his headset.