Since announcing his retirement as a player in 2022, longtime NBA guard Jamal Crawford has held a series of broadcasting roles, most recently serving as a game analyst for NBC during the 2025/26 season. However, Crawford hopes to eventually transition to coaching, as he told Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady during an appearance on the duo’s ‘Cousins’ podcast (Twitter video link).

“I one thousand percent know I’m going to be an NBA coach one day,” Crawford said. “And I’ve never said that publicly. I just know it.”

According to Crawford, there were two NBA teams interested this offseason in bringing him aboard as an assistant and one that wanted to interview him for its head coaching position. He said he turned down those opportunities because he doesn’t want to take a coaching job before his son graduates from high school.

Jamal’s son, JJ Crawford, won a gold medal with Team USA at the FIBA U17 World Cup this summer and is listed as ESPN’s top recruit in the graduating class of 2029.

“I know one thousand percent, once he goes to high school, I’ll be an NBA coach. No doubt about it,” Crawford said. “He has three more years of high school, and then after that, I have zero doubt I’ll be a head coach in the NBA. For sure.”

Crawford, who has served as an assistant at Rainier Beach High School (JJ’s school) in Seattle, went on to explain that coaching makes him feel “alive” in the same way that playing basketball did. He added that he relishes the opportunity to be a “leader of men” and loves the way that coaching “challenges your mind in real time.”

While it’s rare for an individual to earn an NBA head coaching job without first taking an assistant job or having success as a college head coach, it’s not unprecedented for a former NBA player to be hired without past experience at those levels. Notably, the Lakers pulled JJ Redick out of the broadcasting/podcasting ranks two years ago even though he had no previous NBA or college coaching jobs on his résumé.