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Inside The Huskies

Huskies Look to Future and Just Down the Street, Offer Young Crawford

JJ Crawford has a University of Washington scholarship offer as he prepares to enter high school.
Dan Raley|
JJ Crawford, middle, takes in an NBA game with his dad, Jamal.
JJ Crawford, middle, takes in an NBA game with his dad, Jamal. | Jamal Crawford

His dad Jamal Crawford didn't play for the hometown University of Washington basketball team, instead choosing Michigan briefly before a long NBA career, but he always seemed to lament that decision.

He missed out on a chance to play on the college with his closest friend, Will Conroy.

Maybe their sons will get it right.

On Monday, Danny Sprinkle's UW staff extended a scholarship offer to JJ Crawford, a sleek 6-foot-3 shooting guard, coming out of eighth grade and a Class of 2029 member set to enter his father's alma mater, Rainier Beach High.

Young Conroy, a 6-foot point guard similarly from the Class of 2029, now lives and plays in Southern California because his father, Will, is an assistant coach for USC.

Jamal Crawford has given back to Seattle in a lot of ways, hosting the CrawsOver Pro Am each summer that involves NBA and amateur talent and financially supporting a new Rainier Beach gym that carries his name. Now he has basketball talent in the family that appears to have plenty of potential

At this stage, his son seems gifted enough and confident enough to play at a high level someday.

"I can shoot, finish," JJ told a podcaster. "I can shoot the dime, too. I'm energetic."

At his age, Jamal Crawford was living in Los Angeles after his parents got divorced and similarly trying to make his way into big-time basketball. Clyde Crawford, his father and JJ's grandfather, played briefly at Oregon, nine games during the 1970-71 season.

Jamal moved to Seattle after he was traumatized when a close friend was shot and killed in front of him while they waited to catch a bus.

JJ Crawford, however, has had a safe, protected and basketball-centric childhood while growing up with a famous dad.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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