Sam Crawford

Sam Crawford (born April 18, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player. An agile and diminutive point guard at 5 ft 8 in tall, he attended Moorpark community college for two years before transferring to a Division I program, New Mexico State. In 1992–93 he led the NCAA in assists with a 9.1 average, was awarded the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award for the best college player under 6 ft and was an AP Honorable Mention. He is the all-time assists leader at New Mexico State with 592. After his senior year of college he went undrafted in the 1993 NBA draft and had a short professional career in the CBA. He also appeared in two movies: Blue Chips and Forget Paris.

High school career 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.

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. he then spent a period living on the streets of Westchester, and sometimes at his teammates' houses, working odd jobs. He led the conference in assists and scored a school-record 49 points against Ventura College. 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. but ultimately finished second: while Crawford had the most assists (282), 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 led the Aggies in scoring and the entire NCAA in assists, being the top player both in total assists and in per-game average (9.1). 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.

Community college 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 (15 out of 18 games) and averaged 14.5 points, 9.9 assists and 0.9 steals in 37.9 minutes. 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.