Former NBA player Jamal Crawford praises Jaylen Petty after Rainier Beach 3A title win
On Friday, the night before the Class 3A state high school boys basketball championship game, Jamal Crawford was talking with his wife about Jaylen Petty, the star senior guard on Rainier Beach’s basketball team.
“He reminds me of you,” she told him.
High praise for Petty, who scored 26 points and led the Vikings to the 3A title, a blowout win over Edmonds-Woodway on Saturday night.
Crawford, who played his high school basketball for Mike Bethea at Rainier Beach, went on to play college basketball at Michigan and become the eighth overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft. He played for nine NBA teams over the course of his 20-year professional career, which ended in 2020.
Now he’s helping as an assistant for Bethea at Rainier Beach. This season was Crawford’s first.
After Rainier Beach won the state championship game on Saturday — and dominated the entire tournament, winning its three games by an average margin of 19 points — Crawford took a moment to reflect on what it’s been like to coach and specifically, to coach Petty, a New Mexico signee.
“He’s one of the best kids I’ve ever been around,” Crawford said. “In the group chat he’s sending prayer verses to his teammates. If they need anything, he’s there for them. It’s like he’s been here before. I’ve never worked with a kid that’s been that obsessive with being great, the small details.”
The on-court success was fun — and Crawford has been involved with plenty of it over the course of his playing career, winning the 1998 state title at Rainier Beach before his illustrious pro career — but Crawford said it’s the off the court impact he’s made that he has enjoyed the most.
“Who knew I’d be coaching?” Crawford said. “That was never in the plans. It’s surreal. It’s so much more than what’s on the court. The kids attack every day. It means so much. It’s so much more than basketball. You’re part of those kids’ lives. The good days, the bad days, the days they need a hug, the days they need a shoulder to cry on. It’s so much deeper.
“It’s just surreal. My first year playing high school basketball, I won it with coach Mike. My first year as a coach, I won it.”
It’s been a full-circle journey for Petty, the TNT’s 2024 All-Area player of the year. He started his career at Rainier Beach before spending his sophomore and junior seasons at Auburn, then transferred back to Rainier Beach for his senior year.
Hoisting the trophy on Saturday was everything Petty envisioned when he returned to Beach.
“The fact that we came out here, just stayed together as a brotherhood, it means a lot to me,” Petty said.
This story was originally published March 8, 2025 at 7:54 PM with the headline "Former NBA player Jamal Crawford praises Jaylen Petty after Rainier Beach 3A title win."
