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^[1] and Forget Paris.

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.^[2] 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.^[2] When he was 10, his mother decided that he should move in with Carter, in an attempt to keep his son away from a life of poverty.^[2][3]

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.^[4] 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.^[2] Crawford and Mason led Westchester, and Crawford was named in the All-City team twice.^[2] In his junior season he averaged 17.4 points and 8.6 assists per game; in that same year, his aunt Mita and Carter divorced, and he refused to move with Carter in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles:^[5] he then spent a period living on the streets of Westchester, and sometimes at his teammates' houses, working odd jobs.^[2][3] During his senior season of high school, Crawford had a personally successful season, but the team only finished with a 16–6 record.^[3]

He was recruited by Texas Tech and New Mexico State, but he was struggling with grades at Westchester^[2] and stopped attending classes after the end of the basketball season.^[3] At the end of his senior year he did not qualify academically, and according to Proposition 48 he could not attend a Division I college, having to sit out one year; after briefly attending Howard College in Big Spring, Texas,^[3] he decided to attend Moorpark College in Ventura County, California.^[2]

Crawford immediately found success at Moorpark, and was the best player of the team, scoring 20.7 points per game and averaging 12.1 assists (411 total) in his freshman season.^[6] He led the conference in assists and scored a school-record 49 points against Ventura College.^[2] In his sophomore season he played 27 games, totalling 357 assists with an average of 13.2, and averaged 19.4 points. He recorded a triple double with 24 points, 19 assists and 11 steals against Glendale on January 3, 1991.^[7] 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.^[2]

Crawford transferred to New Mexico State and was named the starting point guard: he played 33 games, averaging 12.9 points and 8.5 assists with a field goal percentage of .420 (.401 from three). He led the nation in assists for most of his junior season,^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[8]

Crawford's senior season in college was the most successful of his career. On December 21, 1992 he recorded 20 assists against Sam Houston State, only 2 shy of the all-time NCAA record of 22.^[10] Crawford led the Aggies in scoring^[11] and the entire NCAA in assists, being the top player both in total assists and in per-game average (9.1).^[12] He also recorded New Mexico State's single-season record with his 310 assists, breaking his own record established during the previous season.^[13] 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.^[13]

In the days leading to the 1993 NBA draft Crawford was projected as a late second round pick,^[8][15] and he took part in Pre-Draft camps in Phoenix, Arizona.^[16] 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.^[17] 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.^[17] In 1994 he played in the Liga Profesional de Baloncesto in Venezuela where he led the league in assists per game at 11.1 (267 in 24 games), the all-time league record for highest assists per game average in a single season.^[18] 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.^[17]