Crawford joins Utah Jazz coaching staff for NBA Summer League

Crawford arrived in Salt Lake City earlier in the week for the lead-up tournament, which runs from July 8-10, before heading to Las Vegas for the official NBA Summer League from July 12-22.

The opportunity came about through former Wildcats head coach Scott Morrison, who is currently an assistant coach at the Jazz.

Crawford was looking to use the experience to further develop as a coach and learn from those in the elite NBA environment.

“I’m super excited to be doing professional development with a great organisation like the Utah Jazz,” Crawford said.

“Learning from elite coaches in an environment like the NBA Summer League will help me grow as a coach, allowing me to better service our program in Perth.

“I'm very grateful to the Utah Jazz staff and coach Scott Morrison for facilitating a great couple weeks of learning.”

After serving Trevor Gleeson’s Wildcats coaching staff as a video intern since 2019, Crawford began a full-time position with the club in June 2021 before stepping up to being an assistant coach and head of the Wildcats Academy.

He's coached numerous state teams at the Australian National Championship level, with roles including head coach of the Under-18 WA Metro Women in 2021, and assistant coach of the Gold Medal-winning Under-18 WA Metro Men in 2018. 

Crawford was head coach of the Rockingham Flames WSBL (now NBL1 West) side, where he led the team to the 2019 WSBL Championship.

He was also the lead assistant coach of the Perth Lynx for one season in the WNBL under Ryan Petrik.

The Jazz's Summer League roster includes Cody Williams, taken with pick No.10 in last week's NBA Draft, Isaiah Collier (pick 29) and Kyle Filipowski (pick 32).

Third-year centre Walker Kessler, second-year trio Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks and Brice Sandabaugh and veteran Kenneth Lofton Jr are among the other notable names in the team, to be coached by Jazz NBA assistant Sean Sheldon.

Utah open their Salt Lake City tournament against Memphis on July 8 before taking on OKC Thunder (July 9) and Philadelphia (July 10).

Their Vegas campaign gets underway against Dallas on July 13.