Wildcats assistant Crawford reveals head-coaching aspirations

The 28-year-old, in his fourth season as a Wildcats assistant, said while he “definitely” wants to become a head coach in the future, he didn’t want to fall into the trap of trying to climb the ladder too quickly and was really grateful for his current role.

“Yeah I do,” Crawford told the Perth Wildcast podcast when asked about his head-coaching aspirations.

“I definitely want to be a head coach at some point, but I do think a trap that a lot of young coaches fall into is just trying to climb the ladder all the time.

“I’m really grateful for the job I have and the role I have now so I’m just trying to do the best at that and whatever happens, happens, but that is a goal of mine.”

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Crawford, a former lead assistant coach at Perth Lynx and NBL1 West championship-winning head coach at Rockingham Flames, recalled how he got his foot in the door at the Wildcats under Trevor Gleeson back in 2019.

“It was a while ago now, I was pretty lucky to be a video coordinator and an intern for my two years before becoming a full-time member of the coaching staff,” Crawford recalled.

“As a lot of coaches in Australia do, I was working a lot of jobs and doing multiple things and (former Wildcats assistant coaches) Jacob Chance, Adam Forde, Nelly (Matthew Nielsen) and Trev (former Wildcats head coach Trevor Gleeson) had me come along and do some video coordinator intern stuff.

“I did that for two seasons and made it work as a full-time assistant coach now.”

Crawford also spoke about his time at the NBA Summer League with Utah Jazz, and some of his other career highlights including being an assistant coach of the gold medal-winning Under-18 WA Metro Men in 2018.