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Jamal Crawford On Free Agency, Recruiting, Clippers’ Future

What’s your approach to fending off Father Time and staying effective for so long? Whatever it is, it has worked really well. Jared Dudley told me that you’re “the Benjamin Button of the NBA.” What’s the secret?

Crawford: “I think clean living and taking care of myself are really important. I’m always doing preventive stuff. I don’t wait until any injuries happen – knock on wood – to take care of my body. I’m always doing stuff like foam rolling, stretching, going in the cold tub, drinking a lot of fluids and staying in great shape. I’m always in great shape. I’ve never been a guy who gets out of shape and then needs to get back in shape. I feel like that’s like taking a job and leaving your house for nine months, and then when you come back, you try to turn on your lights and they’re popping and you try to start your car and you have issues. I think some injuries happen when you take a lot of time off and then try to get back into shape and back into playing. I don’t take that time off. I rest my body and recover, but I don’t take that kind of time off where I get out of shape because I think that’s when bad things happen.”

What’s your hope this summer? I’m sure you’ll weigh your options since there are so many teams that have significant cap space, but are you hoping to re-sign with the Clippers?

Crawford: “My preference is to re-sign with the Clippers. But I understand that, at the end of the day, I’m a free agent so I have to look at everything. I have to take every call and consider every offer that comes to me and my agent. I have to, that’s just part of being a free agent. Like I said, my preference is to re-sign with the Clippers. But we have to take every single call that comes in. That’s the way it is.”

With the Clippers, this team has been together for quite some time and that kind of continuity is somewhat rare is today’s NBA. Since being eliminated, there have been some trade rumors and speculation that the team may be split up. Do you think the best approach is to bring the whole team back or do you think some changes need to be made?

Crawford: “I think chemistry is underrated. If you look at the really, really great teams, most of them have been together for years – and not just in this era either, even going back and looking at the great teams in NBA history. With us, if you look at the last two champions – the Spurs and the Warriors – we knocked both of those teams out recently [eliminating San Antonio in 2015 and eliminating Golden State in 2014]. I think we’re right there in terms of contending. We’re not far away whatsoever. Sometimes you have to keep knocking on that door until you break it down. It may take time and it may not be the easiest process, but that’s the way I kind of look at it.”

Alex Kennedy, Basketball Insiders