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Inside The Huskies

Young Crawford and Conroy Pull in Gilded National Rankings

The sons of some of Seattle's best are making a big splash themselves.
Dan Raley|
A young JJ Crawford, center, takes in an NBA game with his dad, Jamal.
A young JJ Crawford, center, takes in an NBA game with his dad, Jamal. | Jamal Crawford

ESPN just unveiled its high school basketball player rankings for the years ahead and the Class of 2029 has a decided Seattle bent to it.

Jayen "JJ" Crawford, a 6-foot-5 guard finishing up his freshman year at south Seattle's Rainier Beach High School, has been anointed as the nation's No. 1 player while 6-foot guard Will Conroy Jr., whose name resonates across the city but lives in the Los Angeles area, comes in at No. 21.

They're the sons of former college and NBA players bent on making their families proud.

They each hold a University of Washington scholarship offer extended last year, though their chances of ending up in Montlake might be wishful thinking.

Crawford's father, Jamal, is considering an offer to become a Kentucky assistant coach, while Will Conroy Sr., currently is an assistant for USC after playing and coaching for the Huskies.

Three years ago, the UW could have strategically made moves to have a better shot at signing one or both of these basketball prodigies.

Once Mike Hopkins was fired, Will Conroy Sr, then a Husky assistant, applied for the coaching vacancy, only to be told the school intended to hire an existing head coach, which it did by bringing Danny Sprinkle on board.

A Conroy-led UW program could have given the Huskies better access to both the younger Conroy and possibly Crawford.

The dads have been best friends since high school and Conroy no doubt would have looked for ways to put the elder Crawford on the bench with him.

The two sons previously played together locally as sixth-graders for Seattle Rotary and it went well.

At the same time, Alaska Airlines Arena was a place where Conroy Jr. used to visit religiously at a very early age, accompanying his dad to Husky practice and then working out with him afterward.

This past season, Conroy Jr. averaged 26.7 points per game for a 24-7 Village Christian School team in the L.A. suburb of Sun Valley.

Meantime, the younger Crawford averaged 19 points an outing for a 29-1 Rainier Beach team that won the 3A state championship and also featured 6-foot-7 senior Tyran Stokes, who was considered the nation's top player and has committed to Kansas.

Crawford and Conroy have well-known basketball names that will enable them to have their pick of any college basketball program they want.

They could end up playing with their dads nearby, with the latter maybe seated on the bench during their sons' careers.

These Seattle natives might even give some thought to teaming together somewhere, though their basketball options will be endless.

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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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