LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Jamal Crawford made his Brooklyn debut, and it ended quickly.
Crawford hurt his left hamstring in the second quarter of the Nets’ game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday. Crawford had five points and three assists in six minutes off the bench.
He got hurt while being guarded by Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton, who appeared to step on Crawford’s foot. Crawford immediately started hopping, asked for a sub, went to the bench and the Nets didn’t need long to determine that his day was over.
Crawford hadn’t played in Brooklyn’s first two games of the restart, held out for conditioning reasons. His appearance Tuesday made him the eighth player in NBA history to appear in 20 different seasons — and, with Vince Carter now officially retired, made him the oldest player currently in the league.
At 40 years and 137 days, Crawford also became the oldest player to play for the Nets. He was signed July 9 as a replacement player by Brooklyn — which is without seven players because of injury or concerns about illness at the NBA restart — and practiced with the team for the first time six days later.
Before Tuesday, Crawford’s most recent NBA appearance was April 9, 2019, when he came off the bench and scored 51 points for Phoenix against Dallas. He’s the oldest player in NBA history to score 50 in a game; Michael Jordan was about seven weeks shy of his 39th birthday when he had his last 50-point outing.
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