Jordan Crawford wants lockout to end so he can continue his progress

Jordan Crawford and John Wall ended the final weeks of the season setting rookie records, sharing ball-handling duties, taking turns going on scoring binges, and raising expectations for their future in the Wizards backcourt. Crawford and Wall have both been training at 360 Health Club in Reseda, Calif., this summer but they haven’t been focused on developing chemistry by sharing the backcourt in the pickup games. They’ve mostly been working on making each other better — by battling one-on-one.

 “We check each other, pretty much the whole time,” Crawford said in a recent telephone interview. “We always going at it. If he get a bucket, I’m going to get a bucket right back. Or I’m going to try to stop him. We lift, and really just [play] one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three, five-on-five, just competing all the time really.”(...)

Just because Crawford hasn’t been overly visible doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been working hard to get prepared for whenever next season begins. Crawford has been in Los Angeles for most of the summer, hanging out with older brother, Joe, and working out with fellow NBA players Wall, Nick Young, Paul George, Jeff Adrien, Danny Granger and Dahntay Jones.

“I’m really the type, if I get me a spot and a comfortable situation, I really just cool out or work out wherever I’m at,” Crawford said, explaining why he has spent most of his time in Los Angeles with occasional trips home to Detroit. “I’m just working out, relaxing, really, having a good time.”

In addition to battling on the court, Crawford said he and Wall have also hung out socially in Los Angeles. “It’s fun just getting to know each other off the court, too. Not just around the coaches and the team, just having a different vibe,” he said.(...)

Crawford’s brother, Joe, a former second-round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers, left last week to play for Maccabi Rishon Le-Zion in Israel. Joe Crawford has also played for the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association and tried to convince Jordan to consider playing overseas if the lockout doesn’t appear to be close to any resolution.

“He’s told me a couple of things,” Crawford said of his brother. “He’s the one that started with, ‘You should really look into it and see what it is.’ He thinks I should make that move if it lasts long. He said, it’s different culturally, but there really isn’t much he could tell me without me experiencing it myself. I know I’d have to go see it for myself. . . . We’ve been looking into, seeing what the options is, but it’s a lot that goes into it, like your contact with your current team, but I have my eye on overseas, too.”