Crawford was born in Illinois to Debra Crawford; his biological father abandoned the family when Crawford was 3, and he was raised by his mother in Harvey, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. Crawford's aunt Mita married former NBA player Ron Carter, and Crawford usually spent his summers in Los Angeles, California with the two, playing in basketball camps. When he was 10, his mother decided that he should move in with Carter, in an attempt to keep his son away from a life of poverty. Crawford attended Westchester High School in Los Angeles and he was one of the best players of the team together with Zan Mason, a Parade All-American and highly ranked prospect who would later play for UCLA. Crawford entered the starting five at Westchester in his freshman year, after a particularly good performance against Crenshaw, one of the top high school basketball teams in the area. Crawford and Mason led Westchester, and Crawford was named in the All-City team twice. In his junior season he averaged 17.4 points and 8.6 assists per game; in that same year, his aunt Mita and Carter divorced, and he refused to move with Carter in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles: he then spent a period living on the streets of Westchester, and sometimes at his teammates' houses, working odd jobs. During his senior season of high school, Crawford had a personally successful season, but the team only finished with a 16-6 record.
College career
He was recruited by Texas Tech and New Mexico State, but he was struggling with grades at Westchester and stopped attending classes after the end of the basketball season. At the end of his senior year he did not qualify academically, and according to Proposition 48 he could not attend a Division I college, having to sit out one year; after briefly attending Howard College in Big Spring, Texas, he decided to attend Moorpark College in Ventura County, California. Crawford immediately found success at Moorpark, and was the best player of the team, scoring 20.7 points per game and averaging 12.1 assists in his freshman season. He led the conference in assists and scored a school-record 49 points against Ventura College. In his sophomore season he played 27 games, totalling 357 assists with an average of 13.2, and averaged 19.4 points. He recorded a triple double with 24 points, 19 assists and 11 steals against Glendale on January 3, 1991. His performances at Moorpark caught the attention of Gar Forman, assistant coach at New Mexico State, who called Crawford and asked him to join the Aggies for the 1991–92 season. Crawford transferred to New Mexico State and was named the starting point guard: he played 33 games, averaging 12.9 points and 8.5 assists with a field goal percentage of.420. He led the nation in assists for most of his junior season, but ultimately finished second: while Crawford had the most assists, Van Usher of Tennessee Tech had a better average at 8.8 per game. He was named MVP of the 1992 Big West Conference Tournament won by the Aggies. His 282 assists were a single-season school record at New Mexico State at the time. Crawford's senior season in college was the most successful of his career. On December 21, 1992 he recorded 20 assists against Sam Houston State, only 2 shy of the all-time NCAA record of 22. Crawford led the Aggies in scoring and the entire NCAA in assists, being the top player both in total assists and in per-game average. He also recorded New Mexico State's single-season record with his 310 assists, breaking his own record established during the previous season. At the end of the season he won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award for best player under 6 ft in college basketball, and he was named an All-American Honorable Mention by Associated Press. He is the all-time assists leader at New Mexico State with a total of 592, despite having played there only for two seasons.
College statistics
Source
Community college
Division I
Professional career
In the days leading to the 1993 NBA Draft Crawford was projected as a late second round pick, and he took part in Pre-Draft camps in Phoenix, Arizona. However, he ended up being not drafted by an NBA franchise. Crawford then decided to join the Continental Basketball Association and signed for the Hartford Hellcats where he started 2 of 23 games, averaging 9.0 points, 6.7 assists and 1.1 steals in 25.2 minutes per game. During the same season he transferred to the Wichita Falls Texans where he was a starter and averaged 14.5 points, 9.9 assists and 0.9 steals in 37.9 minutes. In 1994 he played in the Liga Profesional de Baloncesto in Venezuela where he led the league in assists per game at 11.1, the all-time league record for highest assists per game average in a single season. His last team in the CBA were the Grand Rapids Mackers where he only played 3 games, averaging 3.0 points and 0.3 assists in the 1994–95 season.
