Jamal Crawford has had plenty of good times in the NBA hardwood as an explosive scorer, but he's also had his share of difficult encounters with some of the best defenders in the league.
Asked which player he'd hate to see across from him with the ball in his hand, the new member of the Minnesota Timberwolves was candid in his response.
“The guys who have played the best defense on me, I’d say, are Doug Christie, Tony Allen and Bruce Bowen,” Crawford told Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype, who also surveyed 13 other players with this very question. “They’re all really good defenders, for sure.”
Christie and Bowen are both retired but masters at their craft when it came to the defensive side of the ball. Both were technicians at the lost art of one-on-one defending, coupling great lateral movement and maximizing their off-the-ball tactics to make up for their athletics deficiencies.
The two were some of the early examples of the now-popular three-and-D archetype, doing so during their time with the Sacramento Kings and the San Antonio Spurs, respectively.
Allen is a beast of his own —- fearless and immensely proud of being the defensive stopper for the Memphis Grizzlies, who hasn't backed down from any player and taken on all comers during his 13-year career. The 6-foot-4 hound has made the All-NBA Defensive Team six of his last seven seasons since becoming a member of the Grizzlies, becoming the godfather of the Grit-n-Grind culture for the organization.
While Crawford is surely glad Christie and Bowen have hung up their sneakers, Allen is still around to haunt people's dreams of scoring on the touted defensive ace.
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