Xinjiang Flying Tigers interested in acquiring Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Crawford – NBA News
After NBPA’s rejection of NBA’s recent offer, it looks like whole NBA season would now be cancelled and in the coming few weeks, the pace of NBA players moving abroad will pick up.
Just yesterday, it was learnt that Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Crawford might be heading to China after being approached by one of the most influential clubs in the country, the Xinjiang Flying Tigers.
No official statement regarding the contract has been made public yet, but Xinjiang after strengthening their team by acquiring Denver Nuggets Kenyon Martin earlier in the summer, have shown their interest in getting Crawford.
Xinjiang had also tried to acquire Los Angeles Lakers giant Kobe Bryant earlier; however they were not able to land him because of strict rules introduced by Chinese Basketball Association. And these rules will again give Xinjiang
a tough time in case of Crawford.
According to these rules, Chinese teams can only acquire NBA free agents and there is no opt-out clause for players so even if somehow, Jamal lands here, he would be stuck in China until the Chinese League ends in March. There
are few barriers that Xinjiang has to cross to ensure that they get Crawford.
The biggest of them would be to convince Jamal to play for them when he can easily go and sign a short contract with some European club. At the moment, Kenyon and two other Denver players - Wilson Chandler and J.R Smith - are amongst
the most prominent players to sign in China but they were free agents so they had the leverage.
However, with the two sides still nowhere on the labour dispute, it seems that the total or a major share of the NBA season will be cancelled. Just today the league cancelled the games through 15 December and with the matter now
in court, things are not headed up stream.
The second hurdle is the playing style and the philosophy of the game in China. In the Chinese league, coach is supposed to be all and all of the team and individual players are not given that much importance. Then there is the
case of accommodation and training facilities. All these sum up as a major hurdle for any star NBA player and Crawford is no different.
Xinjiang Flying Tigers though will have to make their move quickly as the Chinese season is scheduled to start on 19th November. With just three days remaining and so many obstacles to clear, acquisition of Jamal looks
difficult.
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