Jamal Crawford Recalls Missing Out on Working With Shaquille O’Neal on Kyrie Irving’s $46.7 Million Grossing Hollywood Project

The movie Uncle Drew, starring Kyrie Irving and Shaquille O’Neal, was a sports comedy film based on the title character from Irving’s Pepsi Max advertisements that began airing in 2012. The film included many former NBA players, such as Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, and Nate Robinson. Jamal Crawford, who recently hopped on to Shaq’s ‘The Big Podcast’, revealed how he was also supposed to be a part of the movie but never really made it to the silver screen.

Crawford had a good relationship with Kyrie Irving, dating back to Irving’s days with the Boston Celtics. While discussing working out with Kyrie in the off-season, Crawford also touched upon how he was supposed to be in the movie Uncle Drew. “I was supposed to be in Uncle Drew,” the three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year told Shaq.

Reasoning his absence from the movie, Crawford added, “I just got traded to Minnesota. And [Tom] Thibodeau, when we were going to shoot, Thibodeau had off-season workouts. I didn’t want to be Hollywood, coming from LA…You know, Thibodeau ain’t got no off switch. Like, they’re doing training camp-type workouts during September that year.” 

The Timberwolves had a strict workout regimen under Coach Tibbs, which wouldn’t have allowed Crawford to manage under this schedule.

Nevertheless, the 2018-19 season wasn’t as fruitful for the Timberwolves either. Despite starting their preparations early, the Wolves finished 11th in the Western Conference and could not make the cut for the playoffs. Subsequently, Jamal Crawford also missed out on working with Shaq and Kyrie Irving in the movie, which grossed a revenue of $46.7 million at the box office.

Jamal Crawford used to work out with Kyrie Irving during the off-season

Jamal Crawford had a great relationship with Kyrie Irving in the NBA. While speaking to Shaq on his podcast, Crawford revealed how Irving would come to Seattle to work out with him during the off-season. Crawford also revealed that Kyrie Irving always watched him play in the NBA as a child and used to be that kid dribbling and showing his moves during timeouts.

After Irving became an established player and played for the Boston Celtics, he came to Seattle to work out with Crawford. The duo would often work out in the University of Washington or Seattle Pacific gyms. Crawford talked about how, in one-on-ones, both he and Kyrie had a 6-6 record against each other.

On that note, Shaq suggested a Game 13 of such one-on-ones, where Kyrie or Crawford would prevail. It would be interesting to watch Crawford lace up again to play against Irving in an exciting matchup between the two legends.