NO ONE WHO knows Jae Crowder was surprised when he punctuated the Phoenix Suns' clinching first-round win over the Los Angeles Lakers by salsa dancing in the general direction of LeBron James.
"I loved it," said Corey Crowder, Jae's father, who played for the Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs before a long career in Europe.
"It was hilarious," said Isaiah Thomas, Crowder's teammate and trash-talking rival for parts of three seasons with the Boston Celtics. "Jae is not taking s--- from anybody."
That is how a junior college journeyman who began his NBA career as a deep reserve with the Dallas Mavericks grows into the plug-and-play role player every winning team wants. It helped that the league trended in directions that favor players with Crowder's size and versatility -- a group that includes P.J. Tucker, who rejoined the NBA with the Suns after several years in Europe and now starts for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Winning has followed Crowder: from Marquette, where he starred for two seasons; to those Boston teams; and now to back-to-back Finals with the Miami Heat -- who never quite recovered from losing him -- and the Suns.
Through it all, Crowder has never been intimidated or star struck. Early in Crowder's third season, Crowder and Mike Procopio, then a Mavs player development coach, were working out in the Mavs' practice gym the night before a home game against the Lakers. Kobe Bryant had scheduled time in the same gym after Crowder, and strolled in early.
Prior to landing in Dallas, Procopio had been Bryant's personal video coach. Bryant caught Procopio's attention and tried to strike up a conversation, Procopio and Crowder recalled. Crowder, who was and is a massive Bryant fan, nonetheless stopped Procopio: It was Crowder's slot, and he didn't care who was visiting. Tossing in some select words, Crowder suggested Procopio get back to work.
"That is what makes Jae Jae," Procopio said. "He has complete confidence -- and a competitive chip on his shoulder that makes the iceberg that sunk the Titanic look like a snowflake."
A favorite Crowder habit among friends is that he texts in all capital letters -- always in your face, even when you can't see his face.
Crowder's inner circle knew he would remember the end of the Lakers' Game 3 win, when James backed him down over and over in front of the Lakers' bench as L.A.'s reserves mimicked James' movements.
"I felt so bad for my son," Corey Crowder said. "But you take your kicks and put that in the back of your mind. Jae has a very good memory. At some point, the tables turn."
CROWDER REMEMBERS HIS father bouncing around pro leagues to earn a good living, and understands how easily his own career could have gone that way -- the G League and Europe -- instead of two long-term NBA contracts worth about $64 million.
The Suns' willingness to guarantee Crowder three full seasons at almost $10 million apiece was a big reason he chose them. Ricky Rubio, Crowder's teammate in Utah, called Crowder to recruit him for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Rubio and Crowder said. The Mavs had interest in a reunion, though they made no firm offer, sources said. The Heat wanted him back, but on a shorter deal, sources said.
Crowder was also moved by Chris Paul and Devin Booker calling him together, and telling Crowder how much the Suns -- mostly inexperienced beyond Paul -- needed Crowder's veteran toughness and 3-and-D skill set. "It was the difference between 'we want you' and 'we need you,'" Crowder said. He gave the Heat one day to extend their offer before joining the Suns.
Crowder had been a hand-in-glove fit in Miami's edgy culture. He can be feisty, sometimes nudging back at coaches on drills and schedules -- not because Crowder doesn't want to work, but because he feels he knows how to manage his body. "If coach is on some B.S., Jae is going to say something -- and not in some disrespectful way," Thomas said. (Crowder once jokingly asked Mavs staffers to subtract the weight of his braids during the team's mandatory weigh-in for all players.)
Players and coaches in Boston remember a practice in 2015-16 -- Crowder's fourth season, and second with Boston -- when Brad Stevens, then Boston's coach, divided the team into two groups: those who had completed four seasons, and those who had not. The younger group was to start in the weight room while the older guys took the court.
Crowder, then a full-time starter, felt he had earned veteran status and snuck in with the more experienced group, Crowder and others recalled. Avery Bradley caught him: "Hit the weights, Jae!"
Crowder was maybe the only player on Miami's roster with the courage, bravado, and shared history -- from their year together at Marquette -- to confront Jimmy Butler when he felt it necessary. A prolonged series of one-on-one games between them was perhaps Miami's secret defining moment of last season's bubble run.
The two had started trash-talking during five-on-five action in practice toward the end of the seeding games. It got heated, and they cleared the court to settle it with a series of one-on-one games that lasted somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour. The player with the ball had to start either on the wing or at the top of the key, and could take only a certain number of dribbles before shooting.
The trash talk became so profane, and so personal, it was borderline uncomfortable, team sources said. Almost the entire Heat contingent stayed to watch. "'I've been busting your ass since school!'" Butler taunted, according to Crowder. (It got much worse than that.) Everyone loved it -- and appreciated Crowder for bringing an edge to practices. (Butler won the final game.)
"What the public sees in games, he brings to every practice and film session," said Buzz Williams, Crowder's coach at Marquette. "He is an everyday guy. You want practices to be harder than games, and Jae lives that."
Crowder's practice battles with Thomas, Marcus Smart, and Evan Turner are part of recent Celtics lore. Coaches worried that if they divided teams a certain way, fights might break out. Crowder would shout that Thomas was a one-dimensional scorer. "OK, defender!" Thomas retorted.
"People thought we didn't like each other -- that's how bad it was," Thomas said. "But we walked off the court as family."
That fearlessness and work ethic is what gave Corey Crowder confidence his son might make it, even as he struggled to get attention from Division I schools. "I knew he had the body," Corey Crowder said. "I knew he was rugged, that he had meanness. I told him, 'If you be that a--hole that guards the best player and enjoys doing that, every team needs that guy."
Crowder played at South Georgia Technical College, a junior college, and then at Howard College in Texas before catching Williams' eye.
Williams met Corey Crowder at Lee Roy Selmon's barbecue restaurant in Tampa, Florida. "'I need you to be tough on him,'" Crowder told Williams, both recalled. "'I need you to be an extension of me. I need to know when he's 21, he's going to be respectful and know how life works. Can you hold my son accountable?'"
Crowder has opted for long-term security in contract talks. When the Celtics signed him to a five-year, $35 million deal in 2015, he approached a front-office staffer and thanked the team for taking a chance on him as part of the Mavs' trade for Rajon Rondo in December 2014.
"I was a castaway," Crowder said. "I felt like no one thought I was an NBA player."
When his son called to tell him about the deal, Corey Crowder stayed grounded. "I knew he'd at least have his pension," he said.
IN BOSTON, CROWDER expanded his game without stepping outside his role. He became a more adventurous, if wildly up-and-down, 3-point shooter. That combination of streakiness and audacity to keep launching has been one of Crowder's defining qualities -- with his hit rate in any particular season going a long way to determining his overall production.
Crowder drained a career-high 40% from deep for Boston in 2016-17. In some corners, he was considered the under-the-radar jewel of the megatrade that sent Thomas, Crowder, Ante Zizic, and a Brooklyn Nets first-round pick to Cleveland for Kyrie Irving.
But in Cleveland and then Utah, Crowder hit 32.8% on 3s; both teams jettisoned him without thinking all that hard. That is the plight of a player at Crowder's level on a long-term, midsize contract: good enough that teams want him, seemingly not so essential that teams won't trade him -- and carrying a salary that fits any trade.
Crowder in those Cleveland and Utah seasons was also reeling from the death of his mother, Helen Thompson, who died from cancer the night he was traded to Cleveland. "Basketball was secondary for the first time," Crowder said.
In Miami and Phoenix, Crowder warmed: 38% on about 8 triples per 36 minutes. His scorching performance last postseason against the Bucks -- 22-of-51 (43%) in five games -- helped swing that series for Miami.
But all along, Crowder was building out the kind of all-around game that withstands shooting slumps. On defense, he can switch across at least three positions in most matchups. Crowder has nimble feet, smart instincts, and a stoutness that allows him to defend above his size in the post. He was the primary defender on Giannis Antetokounmpo during last season's Heat-Bucks series, and got some reps against him in Game 1 of the Finals -- an alignment that allows Phoenix to switch more pick-and-rolls.
Switching becomes more paramount each season as the pick-and-roll subsumes all other forms of half-court offense.
"You don't even know what position Jae is," Williams said. "But you know this: It becomes really hard to take him off the floor."
The Suns may need Crowder's flexibility even more with Dario Saric, their backup center, out for the rest of the Finals with a torn ACL.
Crowder toggles easily between schemes, and memorizes which two-man combinations require particular strategies.
"It was, 'OK, Jae, guard this guy,'" Williams recalled. "'Never mind, guard that guy. If he's in a ball screen, switch it. But if he's in a ball screen with that other guy, trap it.' And the game would start, and I would say, 'Hey, Jae, aren't you supposed to trap there?' And he'd say, 'Coach, I don't think that's what you told me.' And he was right."
Crowder became a decisive catch-and-go driver -- capable of dusting defenders who run him off the arc, slicing into the paint, and making the next pass. "The ball is never gonna stick," Williams said. "That's his brain going. That's why guys like playing with him."
He has one of the league's lowest turnover rates every season. It's tempting to chalk that up to Crowder's light playmaking load, but there are lots of fourth and fifth options more mistake-prone in even smaller roles. Crowder is a low-mistake player on both ends. That has a kind of invisible value, humming in the background.
The little winning things Crowder does dot possessions. Take this 18-second sequence from Game 3 of the Suns' sweep of the Denver Nuggets:
On one end, Crowder spots Booker pinned against Aaron Gordon on the block; Crowder lingers nearby, waiting for the right moment to rescue Booker -- and forces an ugly miss.
A few seconds later, that instant jumping touch pass creates a Mikal Bridges triple. That is an anticipatory pass. Crowder has made it in his head before he catches the ball. Hesitate for a half-second, and the defense is in Bridges' face.
"He does all the dirty work and things other guys aren't necessarily trying to do," Thomas said. "Everybody respects Jae."
That passing touch came in handy when Crowder inbounded the Valley-Oop to win Game 2 of the conference finals against the LA Clippers.
"He wants to win, but he's unselfish about who is doing what if it leads to winning," Williams said.
Boston staffers vividly remember Crowder, out for an April 2016 game against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, watching on TV in the locker room -- cheering, shouting instructions to teammates, calling out sets as if they could hear him. Boston won, ending the Warriors' 54-game regular-season home winning streak. (A year later, the same results-above-all attitude had Crowder mocking Booker and the Suns for celebrating Booker's 70-point performance in a loss against Boston.)
Crowder prides himself on being more than the 3-and-D guy who stands in the corner. He likes to cut and screen -- to touch the ball, feel involved. He reads the game at a level that merits such involvement -- something he and his father credit to Crowder playing quarterback in high school.
"I know how to play basketball," Crowder said. "I study it. It's my life. Just give us a little structure, and we should be smart enough to go play."
He sensed Phoenix might offer that sort of ecosystem. It took time, but he was right. Head coach Monty Williams and his players have built the league's most diverse pick-and-roll attack -- a whirring machine full of flare screens, looping cuts, back picks, and alignments that shift when you're not looking. Everyone plays an active role.
"This style of play -- this flow -- I knew it translated to my game," Crowder said.
Crowder began to realize the Suns might have something special when an assistant coach pulled him aside midway through the season and revealed a tidbit about the team's record: They had about the same winning percentage against losing teams as against opponents above .500. The coach seemed perturbed by Phoenix playing down to the competition. Crowder took the opposite view.
"I actually liked that," Crowder said. "It was telling me that when we respect our opponent, we beat people. We can beat anybody."