After 9 months away, Jae Crowder is ready to return to floor and chase a title with Bucks

MILWAUKEE — Jae Crowder has not played in an NBA game in nearly nine months.

In the summer of 2022, he could not come to an agreement for a path forward with the Phoenix Suns, so both parties agreed it would be best for him to remain away from the team and wait as the organization looked to find Crowder a new place to play. For nine months, Crowder had to do everything in his power to stay in game shape to get ready for his next opportunity. As he detailed when speaking to reporters for the first time since the Suns’ Game 7 loss to the Mavericks on May 15, 2022, Crowder could not play five-on-five — despite offers from the men’s basketball teams at Georgia Tech and Marquette — because he could not risk an injury.

So, in order to prepare his body for the rigors of an NBA season, he did as much as he could by himself.

“Just run myself ragged. Try to make myself throw up. Try to do everything you could think of, more. Even when I get tired, try to push more,” Crowder said. “Whatever it is, some days more than others. Some days, I’m really making myself throw up. Some days, my trainer has to tell me, ‘All right, that’s enough.’ I always felt like I didn’t want to leave the gym feeling I could do more. I wanted to exhaust all my physical attributes and try to be as ready as possible.”

On Monday, Crowder officially started his tenure with the Milwaukee Bucks, getting back on an NBA floor for the first time this season for practice with his new team. Despite Crowder’s attendance, Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer told reporters Crowder won’t play in the next two games — Tuesday in Milwaukee vs. the Celtics and Thursday vs. the Bulls in Chicago — to not only give Crowder a chance to acclimate to NBA basketball again but also to give the team an opportunity to evaluate Crowder’s preparedness for an NBA game action.

“He’s going to have a good few days with us before the All-Star Break, then take a few days and then come back and just evaluate him over the next five, seven days. Ten days probably, I guess, is what it’s probably closer too,” Budenholzer said. “And hopefully get him integrated and playing after the break.”

Getting assimilated with the Bucks and moving forward from his time with the Suns is Crowder’s top priority.

During his time away from the Suns, Crowder did not speak to reporters about the reason for his discontent with the team. On Sep. 25, 2022, the Suns and Crowder released a statement that read, “The Phoenix Suns and forward Jae Crowder have mutually agreed that he will not be with the team for training camp.”

One month later, Crowder gave a statement to TNT’s Chris Haynes:

My @NBAonTNT in-game report on my conversation with Suns forward Jae Crowder, who is away from the team and waiting on a trade: ‘It’s definitely not true of the narrative being pushed about me starting or not.’ pic.twitter.com/QL41N3Njub

— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) October 26, 2022

When given the chance to clear up what exactly happened with the Suns in his introductory media session by The Athletic on Monday, Crowder opted to focus on his future with the Bucks.

“I just feel like it’s behind me now,” Crowder said. “We had some stuff happen internally that they asked me to keep inside, so I’m going to grant their wishes. Obviously I’ve been working with these guys for a trade partner for months now. I think, give or take, they did exactly what they said they was gonna do. Took longer than what we all expected but it got done.

“I’m thankful for my time in Phoenix, I’m thankful for my teammates, I’m thankful for the organization embracing me the past two years – we had a great run and we did some great things in Phoenix and we turned their culture around. So I’m happy for those guys. I wish them luck moving forward. I’m moving on to my next chapter in my career here in Milwaukee.”

While the process took much longer than both Crowder and the Suns would have liked, the 32-year-old forward still ended up in a place he felt he could contribute.

“I was totally letting Phoenix do whatever they felt best,” Crowder said. “They did ask me for a couple, handful of teams that I preferred to go to and I was appreciative of that. I did not want to go to a rebuild. Obviously, at this point in my career I think I laid the foundation of being a winner in this league and I’d like to keep doing that. And I just wanted to give myself an opportunity to just win at a high level. I think that was my main goal to the front office.

“I didn’t say I want to go to this team or this team or this team, I just wanted to give myself a chance to continue to win in this league. I think Phoenix understood that, and they were appreciative of what I brought to their team and that’s all I can ask for when it comes to this business of basketball.”

In the end, not only did Crowder end up with a team that had a chance to compete for a championship in Milwaukee, he also ended up in a city he knows well. Crowder attended Marquette University for two years after being named the National Junior College Athletic Association Player of the Year for the 2009-10 season at Howard College. Under coach Buzz Williams, Crowder and the Golden Eagles went to the Sweet Sixteen in consecutive seasons, which made Crowder take a quick trip down memory lane when he arrived in Milwaukee earlier this week.

“Funny story, I landed here and I took a joyride,” Crowder said. “I dropped my family off at the hotel for a little bit and I just took a ride down memory lane. I went to see where I used to stay at. I rolled through the town, through campus. I just embraced it and took it all in. I think it’s full circle for me in my life. Here we are 12 years later, 11 years later, I’m back where it all started for myself and this journey.”

Now that he’s in Milwaukee though, Crowder is ready to compete. During his time away from the Suns, Crowder told reporters that he spent nights on his couch watching basketball. Sometimes, he would watch four games at a time and curse at the television as he watched close games because he knew that is what he should be doing. Other times, he claimed he would have to turn off the television because he just missed getting to play the game too much.

“It’s everything,” Crowder said of the opportunity in Milwaukee. “Obviously, I’m very grateful for this opportunity to come in a locker room with already a great team and just add on to that. I think it’s great for me, we just said, just add on to what’s already a great team and great locker room. My first day with the guys here was unbelievably great, a great welcome. It’s a family-oriented organization and I’m very happy to be here.”

Crowder told reporters that his first day with the team went well, but admitted that while he felt he was in great shape and didn’t feel tired, his legs felt “heavy” during his first five-on-five sessions with NBA players in months. As he attempted to find his rhythm out on the floor though, his teammates told him to keep it simple.

“It’s funny because I’ve had my share of battles with every guy in the locker room,” Crowder said. “They know exactly what I bring. I just have to bring that. The conversations that I’ve had with the guys is just, ‘Be you.’ That’s one of the best conversations you can have with a new teammate, just not try to change too much, just be you and blend in with what we need to do, learn our concepts, learn our terminology and just be you.

“I think that’s a great gesture just from the organization as a whole. Continue to come in here and just be you. You’ve set a great foundation for who you are as a player. Just we need that and be exactly what you have been in the past, and that’s what I try to be. That’s what I’m going to shoot for and just try to add on to what I said was already a great team.”

From Crowder’s perspective, the organization is exactly what he expected because he got to know the Bucks better than just about any other competitor in the world after playing them in back-to-back seasons in the playoffs. He played for the Miami Heat in 2020 when they eliminated the Bucks from the bubble and he played for the Suns, when the Bucks were crowned champions. So, he feels like he knows the team and their journey as well as anyone.

“I feel like Giannis, as the head of a snake, he grew up mentally,” Crowder said. “Not physically, much. He was doing the same things physically. But mentally, our goal was to try to break him, try to break the guy, break the whole team starting with him. I think we had some success with that in 2020, and come 2021, when I saw him again in the Finals, mentally he was stable, even if you recall, we went up 2-0.

“We were feeling good. We were a young team. I was trying to tell my team to not feel so good because I knew, like the great Kobe said, ‘the job’s not done.’ I was trying to preach that to our guys. We were young, but I knew this team had been down before and had fought back. I knew it just felt like it was not a time for us to be happy. … This team clawed back. … That just showed the mental stability of what they all endured and all had grown. That’s the biggest attribute I took from two years in a row in the playoffs of playing this team was just mentally they are for real.”

And now, Crowder will get to be a part of that team and their journey as they try to build toward another championship. If everything goes right, he will get to add to the team’s toughness, both mentally and physically, but first, Crowder needs to get his legs in the right place and find some rhythm on the floor after an extended layoff.

(Photo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jae Crowder: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)