Drew Crawford met the media today in his first day as a member of Olimpia Milan and the EuroLeague. “I’m extremely excited to be here and I want to thank the organization for giving me the opportunity to represent the team and the city of Milan. For the time I will be here, I will give 100 percent of my effort, my hard work in order to help the team succeed,” he said while introducing himself.
About th EuroLeague debut: “It was an excited call from my agent. My reaction was to be excited, it was a great feeling to be called by a team like Milan that I knew a lot about, that I got to play against last year, a team with an incredible history and reputation. This is my first year in the EuroLeague, but since I came to play overseas I got to play against EuroLeague teams, so I feel I’m ready. I will do whatever it take to get the best out of this opportunity.”
About his role in Milan: “Everytime you go to a team you can have a different role, different things that they ask you to do, but what never changes, it doesn’t matter which team you are on, is the effort, attention to details, playing withing a team concept and what the team needs from you. I will listen to everything that Coach Messina will ask me, with my effort, my attention to details and concentration to make sure I will do all those things and play the role that will help the team win.”
About Coach Messina: “I know his reputation obviously, I know the places he coached in, what he accomplished. I will listen to everything he will say and teach me so to become a better player who’s going to help the team succeed.”
About his father, former NBA top referee, Dan Crawford: “The fact that he was a referee benefitted me, because he introduced me to the game of basketball at a very early age, I had the chance to go to the games, watch the best players in the world, especially coming from the Chicago area during the Bulls’ championship years. He did nothing but support me, if I decided to play golf instead of basketball, he’d have supported me anyway. To me he’s my role model.”
