Olimpia Milan reached a deal for the remaining part of the EuroLeague season with Andrew Crawford, a Naperville (Illinois) native, born on October, 18th, 1990, 1.96 mt. tall, small forward coming from Gaziantep, of the Turkish league and BCL. “I’m extremely excited for the opportunity to play for Milan. It’s a team with great history, reputation and fan support in one of the best cities in the world. I’m looking forward to coming to work hard and give everything I have to help the team,” Drew Crawford said. “We are entering the crucial and decisive part of the EuroLeague season and we made the decision to add a player to our rotation. Crawford is a player with the right skills, as a person and as an athlete, that fit with what we want to do, while continuing to look for ways to improve our team. Drew won’t be able to play in the Italian league, but he can help us to achieve our playoff goal,”, Olimpia’s general manager Christos Stavropoulos said.
HIS CAREER – Drew Crawford was raised in Naperville, very close to Chicago, and attended the Naperville Central High School. Eventually, he attended Northwestern University, in Evanston, in the Chicago area. He stayed there five years, one after his graduation, because he missed the majority of the 2012/13 season because of a shoulder injury. He was named freshman of the year in 2010, twice he was named in the All-Big Ten third team and left Northwestern as the all-time leader in games played and started. Undrafted in 2014 (he took part in the Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors’ training camps), he eventually played for the Erie Bayhawks in the G-League, in Israel (Bnei Herzliya and Maccabi Rishon), in Germany (Ludwigsburg) and in Cremona during the 2018/19 season. He won the Italy Cup in Cremona (he was Final Eight’s MVP) and was named the regular season’s MVP, averaging 17.7 points per game and 4.1 rebounds. Crawford is coming from Gaziantep: he was averaging 13.4 points per game in Turkey (shooting 42.1% from three-point range) and 12.3 points and 4.4 rebounds in the BCL.
NOTES – Drew is the Dan Crawford’s son, a retired 27-year NBA referee who officiated at least one game for 23 straight NBA Finals series, the longest streak in history. He also officiated three All-Star Game before retiring after the 2016/17 season.