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Jamal Crawford Q&A | 09/08/14

Q: Talk about how your summer has been?

Jamal: It has been a very busy summer, probably the busiest of my life to tell you the truth, but a lot of fun. I have had my basketball camps, my back to school giveaways for the kids and hosting the Seattle Pro Am has been real busy, but really great. And I have been working out a ton, I cannot wait for the season to get here!

Q: Talk about the Seattle Pro Am, it has really taken off the past couple summers and started to get national recognition by fans, media and players.

Jamal: I have been doing it for about nine or 10 years now, I actually played in it when I was 16 years old. At that time, Doug Christie was running it. When he got further in his career, he passed it on to me. We have tried to grow it and over these past three years, it has really taken off. It has been voted the best Pro Am in the country recently and that means a lot to me. It has been real cool to see the likes of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and all these guys come to the Pro Am here in Seattle where we don’t have an NBA team. It means so much to this city.

Q: Tell me about your thoughts on new owner Steve Ballmer and what do you look forward to with him as the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Jamal: I am very excited, I have known Steve for about the last five or six years. We have been doing things in Seattle for charity together and we text sometimes throughout the years as friends. It is a really unique situation for me to be friends with someone who is now your owner. He knows me and I know him from living here in Seattle, doing great things for the community and I know how excited he is for the game of basketball and to show Los Angeles a winning and committed team. The NBA is in for a treat.

Q: Being such a proud Seattleite, what do you think of having so many connections on the team?

Jamal: It is amazing. I really live in the two best cities. I love Los Angeles so much, the people and our fans are amazing. Seattle is my home and so it is great to have some connections in LA with me. With Spencer (Hawes) living here, Ballmer living here, CJ Wilcox and Spencer both went to college here (University of Washington) and me calling Seattle home, there are a lot of Clippers connections here. This area is so starved for basketball and they have great, passionate fans. I tell people all the time how great our fans in Los Angeles are, how great the Clippers players are and I think we have a real opportunity to turn some Seattle people into Los Angeles Clippers fans.

Q: You recently got married and many of your teammates came to the wedding. How special is it to have so many of your teammates celebrate such a special day with you.

Jamal: It means so much, we are such a close family at the Clippers. It is so cool to see how many guys came up to Seattle to celebrate my special day with me, means so much. It speaks volumes about what a close knit group we have at the Clippers. These guys could be anywhere in the world and they chose to come up here to be with me.

Q: Have you been doing anything this summer to improve your game?

Jamal: I have been doing a ton this summer. I have been doing a lot of strength and agility work, a lot of catch and shoot drills and have been working on defensive rotation drills. I love to watch film and I want to be a better overall player. I always want to be a better player than I was a year ago.

Q: What are you most excited about this season with the Clippers.

Jamal: Our chemistry. This is my third year with the team, Chris’ fourth and Blake/DJ have been here the longest. This is our second year under Doc so we know what to expect and what we need to do. He doesn’t have to learn players and he knows what to expect. We all know what the goal is and I think this will be the best year in Clippers history.