NBC Sports’ Jamal Crawford Talks Spurs-Thunder & Knicks-Cavs with Rich

Jamal Crawford joined the show fresh off the NBC broadcast booth alongside Reggie Miller and Mike Tirico. His read on what we are watching in both Conference Finals was the most generative interview the show has done on this postseason yet.

Start with the Western Conference Finals, where Crawford does not see the matchup ending in 2026. He sees the start of a decade.

"If everybody stays healthy on both sides, you could be seeing this for the next 10 years," Crawford told Rich. "They're going to have to go through each other."

The reason, in Crawford's read, is that both teams pass the test of "together everyone achieves more." Both rosters operate with old-school college team chemistry built over multiple years. If NIL had been as potent two years ago as it is now, some of these players might still be at their schools chasing a sixth year of eligibility. That continuity is what makes both rosters dangerous beyond any single season.

The shorter-term piece was Crawford's game-three preview. On Isaiah Hartenstein's tactical assignment guarding Wembanyama, Crawford offered both sides of the matchup. From the Thunder's perspective, Hartenstein should do exactly what he did in Game 2.

"Hartenstein, continue to do what you were doing," Crawford said. "Try to frustrate him. Hopefully one of those grabs, pulls, something gets him out of character. If he happens to get very frustrated and get tossed, that's a win for us."

From the Spurs' perspective, the counter is to weaponize movement and foul trouble. Get Wembanyama in space. Get Hartenstein moving laterally. Pick up his second foul early and force him to the bench.

On Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Crawford gave the Game 3 prediction Rich was hoping for. Game 1, by Crawford's read, was SGA reacting to what San Antonio was doing. Game 2 was SGA on his own terms. The adjustment was getting SGA off the ball so he could attack the defense from behind it rather than in front of it. Jalen Williams and AJ Mitchell handled the ball-bringing duties.

"He just has to do it for, you know, three more wins if it's possible," Crawford said.

He paid SGA the highest compliment available.

"He's playing perfection basketball. Most guys in my era, when they ISO, they were ISO-ing to shoot. He ISOs for the team."

On the flopping conversation that has gone on for two weeks, Crawford acknowledged both sides. SGA falls a lot. Sometimes the calls come. Sometimes they don't. When they don't, it actually hurts the Thunder, who lose a defender retreating on a five-on-four break. Chauncey Billups, Crawford said, taught him long ago that this is gamesmanship at the championship level.

The Wembanyama section is where Crawford brought receipts. He compared Wembanyama, as the show has been doing for two weeks, to the player profile of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Tiger Woods at age 22. Crawford then made it personal with a story.

He had been working out with Wembanyama earlier in his development. They played a quick pickup game with assistant coaches and video staff. Wembanyama's team lost. He was furious. It was a meaningless half-court game with no stakes.

"The only other person I've seen get that mad in a meaningless, no doesn't matter, no effect on anything, no effect on the outcome game was Michael Jordan when I was working with him at Hoops back in Chicago," Crawford said.

"He'll be one of the greatest," Crawford said. "He's too focused. He's too locked in. He's too extraterrestrial."

He also confirmed an offseason detail Shams Charania had hinted at earlier in the week. Wembanyama read 50 books in one offseason. A book a week. He did not tell Crawford this. Crawford only learned it later.

"He's a totally different thinker," Crawford said.

Crawford also pre-called the Stephon Castle dunk that closed the Spurs' Game 1. Watching live, he saw Castle hit his launching pad with a left-right takeoff, the same footwork Kobe Bryant used, and immediately said into the broadcast headset that something bad was coming. Castle threw it down on Harden. Crawford was right.

On the Eastern Conference Finals, the answer Crawford gave was the one Rich had not heard articulated this cleanly yet.

"The Knicks' belief right now is like something I haven't seen from them, especially with this group," Crawford said. The current iteration, anchored by Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson, believes it can go on a 44-11 run every single game. That, in Crawford's view, is what championship-level teams do. They believe they will find a way to win. They actually expect to.

The supporting cast confirms it. OG Anunoby. Mikal Bridges. Josh Hart. Immanuel Quickley. Deuce McBride. Jordan Clarkson coming off the bench. Crawford said every Knicks role player feels like they could be the night's hero, and the team is operating in a single emotional accord.

The exchange Crawford liked most from the previous night's postgame was Josh Hart's analytics quote, delivered while Karl-Anthony Towns chewed a slice of pizza next to him.

"They're a lamp post to a drunk person," Hart said. "You can lean on them, but it won't get you home."

Crawford recognized the line.

"That was Jay Wright's quote," he said. "Shout out J. Wright."

He also approved. Analytics, Crawford agreed, are useful in the regular season but become a constraint in the playoffs, where the only number that matters is the scoreboard.

Hart's follow-up landed even harder. He told Karl-Anthony Towns, who came out of college after one year at Kentucky, that Towns "didn't even go to college."

Crawford laughed at it on the show. He laughed at it as a former Nova player would laugh at any Wildcat-vs-the-world joke.

The closer was Crawford's hopes for the next two weeks. He wants seven-game series. He wants both Conference Finals to go the distance. He wants last-possession basketball.

"That means I get to watch some great basketball and listen to you guys," Rich said.