| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 18, 1970 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Listed height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) |
| Listed weight | 155 lb (70 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Westchester (Los Angeles, California) |
| College |
|
| NBA draft | 1993: undrafted |
| Playing career | 1993–1995 |
| Position | Point guard |
| Career history | |
| 1993 | Hartford Hellcats |
| 1993–1994 | Wichita Falls Texans |
| 1994 | Marinos de Oriente |
| 1994–1995 | Grand Rapids Mackers |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Sam Crawford (born April 18, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player. An agile and diminutive point guard at 5 ft 8 in tall, he attended Moorpark community college for two years before transferring to a Division I program, New Mexico State. In 1992–93 he led the NCAA in assists with a 9.1 average, was awarded the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award for the best college player under 6 ft and was an AP Honorable Mention. He is the all-time assists leader at New Mexico State with 592. After his senior year of college he went undrafted in the 1993 NBA draft and had a short professional career in the CBA. He also appeared in two movies: Blue Chips [1] and Forget Paris .
Crawford was born in Illinois to Debra Crawford; his biological father abandoned the family when Crawford was 3, and he was raised by his mother in Harvey, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. [2] Crawford's aunt Mita married former NBA player Ron Carter, and Crawford usually spent his summers in Los Angeles, California with the two, playing in basketball camps. [2] When he was 10, his mother decided that he should move in with Carter, in an attempt to keep his son away from a life of poverty. [2] [3]
Crawford attended Westchester High School in Los Angeles and he was one of the best players of the team together with Zan Mason, a Parade All-American and highly ranked prospect who would later play for UCLA. [4] Crawford entered the starting five at Westchester in his freshman year, after a particularly good performance against Crenshaw, one of the top high school basketball teams in the area. [2] Crawford and Mason led Westchester, and Crawford was named in the All-City team twice. [2] In his junior season he averaged 17.4 points and 8.6 assists per game; in that same year, his aunt Mita and Carter divorced, and he refused to move with Carter in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles: [5] he then spent a period living on the streets of Westchester, and sometimes at his teammates' houses, working odd jobs. [2] [3] During his senior season of high school, Crawford had a personally successful season, but the team only finished with a 16–6 record. [3]
He was recruited by Texas Tech and New Mexico State, but he was struggling with grades at Westchester [2] and stopped attending classes after the end of the basketball season. [3] At the end of his senior year he did not qualify academically, and according to Proposition 48 he could not attend a Division I college, having to sit out one year; after briefly attending Howard College in Big Spring, Texas, [3] he decided to attend Moorpark College in Ventura County, California. [2]
Crawford immediately found success at Moorpark, and was the best player of the team, scoring 20.7 points per game and averaging 12.1 assists (411 total) in his freshman season. [6] He led the conference in assists and scored a school-record 49 points against Ventura College. [2] In his sophomore season he played 27 games, totalling 357 assists with an average of 13.2, and averaged 19.4 points. He recorded a triple double with 24 points, 19 assists and 11 steals against Glendale on January 3, 1991. [7] His performances at Moorpark caught the attention of Gar Forman, assistant coach at New Mexico State, who called Crawford and asked him to join the Aggies for the 1991–92 season. [2]
Crawford transferred to New Mexico State and was named the starting point guard: he played 33 games, averaging 12.9 points and 8.5 assists with a field goal percentage of .420 (.401 from three). He led the nation in assists for most of his junior season, [8] but ultimately finished second: while Crawford had the most assists (282), Van Usher of Tennessee Tech had a better average at 8.8 per game. [9] He was named MVP of the 1992 Big West Conference tournament won by the Aggies. His 282 assists were a single-season school record at New Mexico State at the time. [8]
Crawford's senior season in college was the most successful of his career. On December 21, 1992 he recorded 20 assists against Sam Houston State, only 2 shy of the all-time NCAA record of 22. [10] Crawford led the Aggies in scoring [11] and the entire NCAA in assists, being the top player both in total assists and in per-game average (9.1). [12] He also recorded New Mexico State's single-season record with his 310 assists, breaking his own record established during the previous season. [13] At the end of the season he won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award for best player under 6 ft in college basketball, and he was named an All-American Honorable Mention by Associated Press.
He is the all-time assists leader at New Mexico State with a total of 592, despite having played there only for two seasons. [13]
Source [14]
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989–90 | Moorpark CC | 34 | 34.4 | .479 | .364 | .782 | 3.0 | 12.1 | 3.1 | 0.1 | 20.7 | |
| 1990–91 | Moorpark CC | 27 | 35.6 | .470 | .392 | .755 | 3.2 | 13.2 | 4.0 | 0.1 | 19.4 | |
| Career | 61 | 35.0 | .475 | .378 | .769 | 3.1 | 12.7 | 3.6 | 0.1 | 20.1 |
| * | Led NCAA Division I |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–92 | New Mexico State | 33 | 32 | 33.8 | .420 | .401 | .775 | 2.3 | 8.5 | 1.9 | 0.0 | 12.9 |
| 1992–93 | New Mexico State | 34 | 31 | 34.6 | .394 | .322 | .783 | 2.9 | 9.1* | 1.4 | 0.0 | 12.9 |
| Career | 67 | 63 | 34.2 | .406 | .359 | .779 | 2.6 | 8.8 | 1.6 | 0.0 | 12.9 |
In the days leading to the 1993 NBA draft Crawford was projected as a late second round pick, [8] [15] and he took part in Pre-Draft camps in Phoenix, Arizona. [16] However, he ended up being not drafted by an NBA franchise.
Crawford then decided to join the Continental Basketball Association and signed for the Hartford Hellcats where he started 2 of 23 games, averaging 9.0 points, 6.7 assists and 1.1 steals in 25.2 minutes per game. [17] During the same season he transferred to the Wichita Falls Texans where he was a starter (15 out of 18 games) and averaged 14.5 points, 9.9 assists and 0.9 steals in 37.9 minutes. [17] Crawford was selected to the CBA All-Rookie Second Team in 1994. [17]
In 1994 he played in the Liga Profesional de Baloncesto in Venezuela where he led the league in assists per game at 11.1 (267 in 24 games), the all-time league record for highest assists per game average in a single season. [18] His last team in the CBA were the Grand Rapids Mackers where he only played 3 games, averaging 3.0 points and 0.3 assists in the 1994–95 season. [17]