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Jordan Crawford at the LeBron James Skills Academy
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Xavier sophomore Jordan Crawford during his time at IU (Photo AP)
NBA Superstar LeBron James host a skills academy in his hometown of Akron, Ohio for highly touted high school prospects. Top college players from around the nation are brought in as camp counselors. Last year Xavier grad Derrick Brown was a counselor and this year Xavier sophomore Jordan Crawford has followed in Brown's footsteps.
Jordan is a transfer from Indiana who sat out last season due to NCAA transfer rules. This season Jordan will be playing for his fourth coach in the last two years. Kelvin Sampson, who recruited Crawford to Indiana, resigned amidst a scandal during Crawford's lone season at Indiana. Due to the uncertainty at Indiana, Crawford transfered to Xavier largely because of Sean Miller being head coach. Then after the season Miller left for Arizona which left Jordan having to adjust to yet another new coach, but it turns out to be a familiar face in Chris Mack.
Crawford had an up-and-down freshman season at Indiana due to the scandal surrounding the program, playing out of position and the natural adjustments of making the transition from high school to college. Despite the inconsistency, there is a lot of hype surrounding Crawford and many Xavier fans cannot wait to see him in an Xavier jersey. Throughout last season many observers felt Crawford was the most talented player during Xavier practices. During BJ Raymond's speech at the awards banquet he talked about Jordan's talent and hinted that he would end up breaking the Xavier basketball graduation streak (i.e. leaving XU for the NBA before his senior year).
If the news and hype surrounding Crawford throughout the past year didn't have Xavier fans anticipating Jordan hitting the hardwood for the Musketeers, the news out of the LeBron James Skills Academy certainly will. During a scrimmage Crawford was matched up against LeBron James...and dunked on him.
High school prospect Dwight Powell sets the scene:
They were split into teams, and LeBron had his own team. In all the college player’s eyes, I could see a little fire burning, with all of them itching to show what they have against arguably the best player in the world. One player in particular definitely left their mark in Jordan Crawford of Xavier. On an inbounds play, The King was a step slow, and Crawford put a two-hand dunk on him. I was shocked, but nothing will change my opinion of King James. Jordan Crawford, on the other hand, has some bounce!" However, the story of the dunk does not end there. After the dunk, LeBron and Nike executives in attendance decided they'd rather not have video evidence of the dunk get on the internet. Nike officials approached videographers in attendance and confiscated their tapes. This move could have backfired on Nike as the dunk has grown into a legend and has become a hot topic on various basketball-related sites on the net. Since there is no video of the dunk online, here is a video of Crawford winning a dunk contest at IU's midnight madness.
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