COLUMN | J.J. Crawford's Rise Signals New Era for Rainier Beach Hoops

It is a couple of weeks ago, the reigning WIAA state 3A boys basketball champions are holding their first practice of the year, and already there is a major development. You'd think it was the late addition of the No. 1 prospect in the country, but that's old news. Rainier Beach High School's glorious hoops past, in the form of former NBA great Jamal Crawford, has just measured up with the program's glorious future, his son, J.J., the freshman phenom who now sees nearly eye-to-eye with his father.

"He only has this much on me," the younger Crawford says, excitedly, holding his forefinger and thumb about as far apart as yesterday and tomorrow. The past year, he has shot up about five inches, to the verge of 6 feet 5, on the way to a projected 6-8 or 6-9. The Vikings' hopes of a repeat are equally on the rise.

The latest of coach Mike Bethea's nine state championship teams at Rainier Beach, he says, "is in the conversation as the best I've coached." Even though it graduated its top three scorers from a squad that averaged a head-spinning 93 points a game, the young team that will defend the title could be even better, according to the Vikings head coach.

One of the biggest reasons for such optimism still is growing, physically, as well as in stature, to fill the shoes of his legendary father. Bethea remembers so clearly the first time he laid eyes on Jayen "J.J." Crawford when he was 8 or 9 years old. It reminded him of the first time he saw J.J.'s father, Jamal Crawford, in an open gym when the latter was years older.

They were "carbon copies," according to Bethea — both slinky slim, always pounding a basketball, possessing an intense desire to excel, as well as hoopability levels far above their peers. Back in the day, Jamal Crawford, 45, was known far and wide as "J. Crossover" during his 20-year career in the NBA. He was the brightest light in a luminary who's-who-of-Seattle-basketball crowd. But his second son, J.J., right now?

"He's 15 years old and he's playing and thinking the game like a 19-year-old," says Bethea, who has coached six first-round NBA draft picks at Rainier Beach. "At the same age, Jamal would be playing catchup."

J.J. Crawford doesn't simply come with a pedigree. He arrives with receipts attached. Without having yet played his first high school game, Crawford has 11 Division I scholarship offers. His first, from Montana, came when he was in the seventh grade. Last summer, he generated considerable buzz playing up a level in the prestigious Nike EYBL (Elite Youth Basketball League) and in October was one of just six class of 2029 players invited to the USA Basketball Men's Junior National Team minicamp in Colorado Springs.

"It's very fair to say he's really skilled, he can really shoot, and he has a ton of feel for the game," Eric Bossi, the national basketball director at 247 Sports, the largest digital network focused on college sports recruiting, said in an email. "It's also fair to say that he is considered one of the best incoming freshmen prospects in high school basketball."

For scouts and assistant coaches, the Rainier Beach schedule, beginning Dec. 3 at Renton High School, represents a sort of mobile smorgasbord of college recruits. In addition to Montana, Crawford already has received scholarship proposals from Missouri, Rutgers, Washington, Kansas, Arizona State, San Diego, Sacramento State, Oregon, Southern Cal, and San Francisco. He isn't the only delectable offering on the Vikings' prospect menu.

Tyran Stokes, a 6-7 forward who recently transferred from Sherman Oaks, California, is the consensus top prospect in the 2026 class and is down to Kansas, Kentucky, and Oregon as his school choices. Kametrius Babbs, a 6-5 junior forward/guard, has received an offer from Seattle University. Attracting significant football interest, Achilles Reyna, a 6-7 junior forward, will sit out a requisite 40% of Viking games after transferring from Eastside Catholic.

All arms and legs at 6-9, Louis Harris possesses a downy touch around the basket, an offer from the University of Washington, and, as a freshman, guarantees Crawford a formidable accomplice in a four-year assault on Rainier Beach record books and Seattle basketball legacy.

"By the time we're seniors," Crawford says of Harris, "he's going to be top 25 (in the nation)."

Crawford is asked about himself. "The future I see for me," he replies, "is No. 1."

The way Crawford says this does not come off as braggadocious, but assured and upbeat — a kind of pleasant prognostication. He is full of such surprises. In person, he is deferential, composed, and well-spoken beyond his 15 years — the way his coach described him as a player.

Some of this is being the son of a high-performing professional athlete who has advanced, as Jamal Crawford has, to the broadcast booth, where he is a lead analyst for NBA broadcasts on NBC. Some of it also is the attention and coaching received by said parent, for years day-to-day, but particularly the last three years on the AAU circuit and this year as a volunteer assistant on Bethea's staff at Rainier Beach.

From memories to muscle memory, Jamal Crawford has made a distinct impression on his son.

"You can see elements of his dad's game in his, particularly with his ballhandling, and understanding of the game … where to be, what the right read is, etc.," Greg Stein, a Southern California-based scout for MADE Hoops, a grassroots youth organization, said about J.J. Crawford in an email.

J.J. Crawford says of the comparison with his father, "I just feel like I'm a bigger version of him. He wants me to play a little more simply because I'll be a bigger player." As an example, Jamal Crawford is considered a historic figure in the realm of basketball dribble moves, and his son says he's right there with him — though with some modernization.

"Today's game is less actual combo moves and stuff," the younger Crawford declares. "It's more about pace — less dribbling, more pace, because pace is hard to guard."

Don't blink. The pace of J.J. Crawford's unveiling will be jet quick, with multicolored twists streaming behind him like vapor trails. Bethea promises to push his freshman early because he knows Crawford can handle it. "He will have some jaw-dropping games," the coach asserts.

The stage is set: The home court bears the family name, his father's number hangs in the rafters, and his DNA courses through his progeny's veins. Rainier Beach's Next Best Thing has arrived.

"I'm excited," J.J. Crawford says. "I'm ready."

Glenn Nelson covered the Sonics and the NBA at The Seattle Times for 17 years. He was a founding executive at Rivals.com, a co-founder at Scout.com, and the founder of ESPN HoopGurlz, a national website about women's and girls' basketball. He has won regional awards for his columns about race for the South Seattle Emerald.