JJ Crawford Ready to Roar
After missing more than a month, RB’s freshman says he’s ‘like a hungry lion’
Just in time for the WIAA 3A State Tournament, the Rainier Beach boys basketball team will be adding one inch, more long-distance accuracy, and perhaps the best handles in the state. The “new” player’s name is JJ Crawford. You might remember him being touted as the best high-school freshman in the country, and he and Tyran Stokes the best tandem, when Crawford got tangled with a defender at Garfield High School on January 23 and landed awkwardly behind the baseline.
Crawford, a first-team, all-league selection, has been on the shelf with a right high-ankle sprain ever since.
In the meantime, the Vikings have gutted out nine victories, the last five in either Metro League or District 2 playoffs. As they will tell you, it hasn’t been easy, especially for Stokes, the Metro League MVP who became the focus of every opposing defense. Crawford’s injury also took 19 points a game off the books for Rainier Beach.
“I knew that a lot of teams were going to use that as JJ’s not here, so we’ve got to make the rest of the team score, got to get the ball out of my hands,” said Stokes, the Vikings’ leading scorer in each of their 26 games. “I knew that I was going to get doubled a lot and I’d have to pass out of a lot of traps and stuff, so having JJ back is going to be a big help.”
Bigger than anyone expected. While he was rehabbing and watching his team from the bench, Crawford grew to 6-foot-5, finally surpassing the height of his father, Jamal Crawford, the ex-NBA great and a former Rainier Beach star himself.
He also worked hard to be ready. Crawford initially was on crutches for five days, in a walking boot for another 10. When immobile, he lifted weights when he could, did his rehabilitation exercises, and watched a lot of film.
Crawford wasn’t giving up his shows. “I’m more of a YouTube type of guy,” he said. But the film was revealing, in lots of little tactical ways.
In a larger sense, the biggest takeaway, he said, “was my talking. Some games I would talk a lot. Some games I wouldn’t. I really need to just be communicating with my team.”
He saw times when he just knew he could have made a difference.
“O’Dea, definitely,” Crawford said, referring to the District 2 championship in which his team feel behind 20-4. “The shooting, the playmaking, just generating points.”
Stokes, who is averaging a team-leading 32.3 points, had some impressive accomplishments in Crawford’s absence. He broke the school’s single-game scoring record with 63 points against West Seattle. He made 39 straight free throws against Eastside Catholic and Roosevelt. He had 31 points, 15 rebounds, 6 steals, and 5 assists against O’Dea in the Metro League championship game.
Without Crawford’s court-stretching shooting, Beach’s District 2 opponents, all from the Metro League, shrank the court on Stokes. Facing him for the third time – and in O’Dea’s case, the fourth – those familiar foes defended Stokes with a smaller player who could crowd him on perimeter shots, attacked him with other double-teaming smaller players, and planted their biggest player near the basket. Stokes tried navigating the congestion with his downhill drives, but then he got hacked up in the lane and sent to the free-throw line.
Against Eastside Catholic, Stokes uncharacteristically missed 7 of 16 foul shots. He had a season-low 17 points in the championship game against the Fighting Irish. Part of those struggles can be traced to a switcheroo in basketballs.
The home team, which is the higher seed in the playoffs, typically is given the choice of designating the game ball. The Vikings went through pre-game warmups with Wilson basketballs, only to be told at tipoff against Eastside that the game would be played with a Baden basketball, the official ball of the WIAA. It was enough to throw off Stokes and his Rainier Beach teammates, who missed a combined 16 foul shots and couldn’t land a single 3-point shot.
“It just feels a lot smaller – like a girl’s ball,” Stokes said. “My hands are super big. When (free throws) would come off my hand, it would feel good – kind of. In my free throw routine, I try to hold the ball a certain way. But my hand was just taking up a lot of space on the basketball.”
The Vikings have resolved that issue during a spirited week of practices – with Baden basketballs.
The week has reaffirmed some of the positives that actually emerged during Crawford’s absence – understanding the link between the Vikings’ defense and offense, more recognition of their halfcourt offenses and better ball movement, the return to health of energizer Kam Babbs, and the solidification of junior Micah Ili-Meneese as a prominent offensive threat. Ili-Meneese, a second team all-league selection, continues to score on unrehearsed hustle plays, but he also can be isolated to put his one-on-one game into effect. Crawford’s presence can buy more space to utilize Ili-Meneese in such a fashion.
Rainier Beach next faces Bellevue in a Round 2 matchup on Friday night, 8:00 p.m., at Bellevue College. In the District 2 semifinals, the Wolverines had trouble containing O’Dea’s Brian Webster, the Irish’s version of Crawford, except without the handles and court vision. Bellevue’s offense can be impacted by length, which can put Crawford’s additional inch into play, and it likes to affect momentum with a 2-2-1 halfcourt or three-quarters-court trap, which Crawford’s ballhandling will help neutralize.
Coach Mike Bethea celebrates his team finally being at “full strength.” That includes him, after consecutive bouts with the flu, then Shingles. He is not going to ease Crawford back into the lineup. “I’m old school,” he said. “We’re not going to load manage anybody.”
Crawford said he hadn’t understood just how prepared he was to return until this past Monday. Earlier that day, he got two hours of run with “grown men.” They fell underneath him plenty and he said his new ankle braces “just won’t let my ankle turn. So it just feels like I have two times the strength in my ankle.”
Also, “during this (Monday) practice, I saw what type of shots I was going to get, what type of rhythm I’m going to have, just seeing what I have to do for the team in order to win,” Crawford explained. “Having this whole week to get in shape has been good. It (his conditioning) was definitely worse last week. Now I’m kind of coming back to regular. I feel like I got more range on my shot while being hurt because I had to use my arms more. So the range is definitely there, my shot’s there.”
All that’s left is for JJ Crawford to step onto the court with more than pride among teammates on the line. His team and coaching staff have waited a long time for this. But not any longer than Crawford, who is ready to roar.
“I’m super hungry,” he said, “like a hungry lion, ready to play.”
Rainier Beach Invited to National Tournament
The Vikings are one of eight high school boys basketball teams invited to The Throne, a single-elimination tournament, bracket-style tournament at American Dream in East Rutherford, N.J., March 19-21.
The tournament is sponsored by the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and Gold Level Sports and Entertainment. The winning boys and girls teams will split $50,000 to support their respective programs.
Rainier Beach already has been seeded No. 3, and would open play at 8 p.m. (Eastern) against No. 6 Bergen Catholic (Oradell, N.J.) and Julius Avent, a Michigan State commit. The other schools in the boys field include No. 1 Cavalry Christian Academy (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), No. 2 Sunnyslope (Phoenix, Ariz.), No. 4 Wheeler (Marieta, Ga.), No. 5 Long Island Lutheran (Brookville, N.Y.), No. 7 Columbus (Miami, Fla.), and No. 8 Heritage (Frisco, Tex.).