COLUMN | Road Lessons Fuel Rainier Beach Basketball Surge as J.J. Crawford Emerges

On Monday night, when they were in the thick of it, as the opposing 6-foot-11, 230-pound Yabi Aklog was stuffing 18 of his 35 points down their throats in the third quarter, when the Eastside Catholic Crusaders turned a 14-point deficit into a one-point, final-period lead, the Rainier Beach boys basketball team seemed to have felt rubber in their legs, a burning in their lungs, and lack of clarity in their domes.

The Vikings, after all, had just spent eight days out of town, running with some of the country's best, during their so-called holiday "break." Then they returned in early January to a buzz saw.

"I'm feeling it," Beach coach Mike Bethea said, "so they must be feeling it."

Bethea was referencing road weariness, but what his younger charges must have been feeling, especially at the end of a rousing 85-74 victory over their closest local challengers, were impacts of the lessons they packed home in their suitcases.

It only looked as easy as flipping a switch: As soon as the Crusaders claimed a 70-69 lead with 3:55 to play, the Vikings vaporized them with a 13-0 splurge engineered by their stars, Tyran Stokes (31 points) and J.J. Crawford (24 points, 4 threes), who combined for 19 of their team's final 21 points. After Stokes bullied his way to a three-point play, Crawford dialed up a long-distance three resulting from a loose ball tipped by Stokes out of a rebound scramble with 2:46 left on the clock.

Earlier in the fourth quarter, Crawford had kept the Vikings' heads above water with two 3-pointers, the second after he shook up an Eastside Catholic defender with a smooth crossover. Then he helped produce a grand finale, leaping off the dribble on the break and delivering a perfect lob to Stokes for a thundering, good-night-everybody, drive-home-safely jam with 20 seconds to play.

And, just like that, a first-year phenom has helped Rainier Beach enter the second half of its season with an 11-1 record after Tuesday's 103-63 shellacking of Roosevelt.

"He's really showing why he's one of the best freshmen in the whole country, not just his state," Bethea said of Crawford, the son of NBA great Jamal Crawford. "I mean, he has ice in his veins, like his dad. He's not afraid of the moment."

The moment started coming to Crawford and his Vikings in Portland, then Mesa, Arizona, at the end of 2025. First game in, Rainier Beach scuttled its national championship aspirations by dropping a 69-65 decision to Southridge (Oregon) to open the Les Schwab Invitational. Southridge exploited cracks in the Viking defense, exposed early during what otherwise were victories at home over Blanchet and Seattle Prep — an inconsistency in tracking multiple distance shooters — and, unlike their Washington state counterparts, had enough composure to survive Rainier Beach's withering pressure and running game.

For his part, Crawford muddled through against Southridge, scoring 15 points, but hitting just 6 of 15 shots. He followed that with 13 points on 5-for-15 shooting during a get-right 89-60 Beach victory over Barlow (Oregon), but, as he put it, "I was putting up numbers, but not really doing anything." By the last game of the tournament, an 86-69 victory over Tualitin (Oregon), Crawford improved marginally, scoring 15 points with 3-of-7 accuracy from three-point range.

At the HoopHall West High School Invitational in Arizona, Rainier Beach dispatched the mighty Texans, Duncanville, 74-70, with Crawford's 14 points and four 3-pointers nicely supplementing a monster, 33-point, 14-rebound, 6-block performance by Stokes. If the Vikings end up running the rest of the table and defending their state 3A championship, their second game at HoopHall could be remembered as the foundation for such a run.

Wrapped around his bountiful virtues, Stokes is a fiery player who often walks an emotional tightrope. As he and the Vikings trailed Mater Dei (California) for much of the first half, the wheels began to loosen. After a couple of ill-advised three-point attempts and appearing distracted as the last line of defense against a Mater Dei transition layup, Stokes began jawing on the floor with Jamal Crawford, the Viking assistant, on the Beach bench.

Stokes was pulled from the game by Bethea with 2:06 left in the first half and didn't return until two minutes elapsed in the third quarter. In Stokes' absence, Rainier Beach galvanized around Crawford, played more fluidly at both ends, and went from a 10-point deficit to a 43-all tie on a Crawford 3-pointer. Crawford continued to hit big shots in the fourth quarter, then handed the game off to Stokes, who scored 9 points during the final 2 minutes, 30 seconds of a 75-67 victory over Mater Dei and Kansas commit Luke Barnett.

A bold move by Bethea produced two positive outcomes — allowing space for Crawford's confidence to blossom and providing emotional respite for Stokes. The Vikings have spent the entire season tugging on Stokes' cape and riding his super powers in times of need. He is the No. 1 college prospect in the country, on the verge of earning millions in NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) money in college, and has attracted constant taunting from opposing crowds, plus swarms of wanton YouTubers and content creators, as well as professional scouts and fans the likes of NBA stars Damian Lillard in Portland and Chris Paul in Arizona.

It's a lot, Bethea said.

"[Stokes] said, 'I've never had a coach sit me down and tell me to be focused,'" Bethea relayed. "When you get that caught up in your emotions like that, you have to come off the night a little."

The loss to Southridge had set the stage for adding a couple ingredients to Beach's winning formula. Afterward, the Vikings stayed locked down in their locker room for a lengthy discussion about focus, energy, and trust. Kam Babbs, the Vikings' 6-foot-5 human pogo stick, took the talk to heart and produced a breakout 25 points off the bench. Babbs essentially led the Portland tournament in shooting, hitting 15 of 18 shots (83.3%) and scored 10 points in each of Beach's next three road victories. He took a hard foul during a breakaway against Roosevelt, but the Vikings hope his resulting injury is limited to a bruise above his left knee. Achilles Reyna, a 6-foot-8 transfer from Eastside Catholic, gained his eligibility while in Arizona and adds size, rebounding, and back-end defense, and, with 22 points against Roosevelt, unveiled a classic post-up element Rainier Beach previously lacked.

The team had been dogged by sluggish starts and became addicted to Stokes-induced, third-quarter rescues to overcome them. After Southridge, Bethea went to all upperclassmen (except for Crawford) in his starting lineup and the experience became a stabilizing force. Kellon Hightower, a junior, took advantage by tallying 9 assists and 6 steals against Barlow and, pushed by the competition at lead guard Knowledge Wright, another junior, chipped in 12 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals off the bench the next night against Tualitin.

Rainier Beach returned from Oregon and Arizona more loaded and better defined. It may not become abundantly clear until the Vikings get their land legs back, but the championship caliber they stamped on the road into their team DNA carried tired legs and minds against Eastside Catholic. The Crusaders likely represent Beach's lone local obstacle and the Vikings have a final shot on Jan. 18 against highly ranked Bishop MacNamara in Springfield, Massachusetts, to regain footing on the national scene.

Truth is, the Vikings had not played enough games (five) and had not been pushed hard enough by local competition before hitting the road after Christmas. Beathea was asked after his team's two straight wins in Oregon what he'd expect if his team played Southridge then, instead of first.

"We'd beat them," Bethea said emphatically.

After consecutive victories over prominent programs from Oregon, Texas, California, and the other side of Lake Washington, the further emergence of J.J. Crawford and a supporting cast, and theoretically a more manageable load for Tyran Stokes, it is difficult to argue the coach's point of view.

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.