Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Sillis and Chris
Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
Speaker 1: entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You are
Speaker 1: now tuned in to kJ Live. Today's guest on the
Speaker 1: show was one of the top freshman basketball performers in
Speaker 1: all of high school sports. He's a six three point
Speaker 1: guard that attends Lynwood High School and he recently dropped
Speaker 1: forty five points in the game. Join me and welcome me.
Speaker 1: Jason Crow Jr. To kJ Live. What's up? J two
Speaker 1: was good? Everything's good man, you good. I see you all.
Speaker 1: I turn on my open my Twitter, open my Instagram,
Speaker 1: and it's J two highlights, J two videos. You're out
Speaker 1: there doing your thing. Man. It's it's it's a joy
Speaker 1: to see how you play the game. Man. I've been
Speaker 1: really impressed with your approach, your maturity out there on
Speaker 1: the court, and your ability, honestly, man, to just take
Speaker 1: on whoever is coming at you. How has this first
Speaker 1: part of the season been for you? It's high school
Speaker 1: basketball everything you thought it would be. Uh yeah, it's fun,
Speaker 1: but it's like a lot of ups and down. Especially
Speaker 1: uh ween would have wins and losses, but uh, it's
Speaker 1: been fun so far, especially with coming in with the guys.
Speaker 1: I've annoyance. It's like a while back, So everything's fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's talk about a little a little bit about some
Speaker 1: of those guys. Man. I remember just a few years
Speaker 1: ago when I was coaching, uh with the Truth the
Speaker 1: six teams, and you were playing with the youth team.
Speaker 1: I used to come to your games. You boogie fresh,
Speaker 1: you know where old that whole crew. You guys were
Speaker 1: so live back then. You played with the energy and
Speaker 1: a focus that was just well beyond your years. How
Speaker 1: much did your youth basketball experience of that crew playing
Speaker 1: for your dad and on the circuit in l A.
Speaker 1: How much did that contribute to your development as a
Speaker 1: basketball player? Um? I say a lot because still not
Speaker 1: to this day, I'm still cool those guys and then
Speaker 1: you know, now I'm still my dad's still coaching me.
Speaker 1: So it just brings uh better karterie between embody? Oh
Speaker 1: absolutely do you now? Do you see? I remember when
Speaker 1: you guys used to be in the gym, man, and
Speaker 1: you know you'd be running those steps right behind you
Speaker 1: with medicine balls. Then you be coming down to a
Speaker 1: push ups and lifted ways to do it all kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. You guys were like ten, eleven, twelve years old.
Speaker 1: I was thinking myself, dag man, these dudes in a
Speaker 1: few years are gonna be tough. Do you see now
Speaker 1: that the fruits of hard work and all of your
Speaker 1: labor came to freition? You see why you're doing all
Speaker 1: that stuff? Jack? Oh? Yeah for sure. And now like
Speaker 1: even how I see the uh the results, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to still do it more, work out more. I asked them,
Speaker 1: just like a couple of days ago, if I can
Speaker 1: get in their gym, so I was like standing in
Speaker 1: the gym a lot. Yeah, that's the best batman. The
Speaker 1: gym rats. Uh, the gym rats are the ones that
Speaker 1: get it done. You guys have played a pretty tough
Speaker 1: schedule this season. You've played some really good teams and
Speaker 1: some high level tournaments around Southern California. What team and
Speaker 1: or what team or teams and which players have impressed
Speaker 1: you the most that you've matched up with head to
Speaker 1: hit um just a recent one Giovanni Russ and Longbias Party. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a tough match up, very exciting one. I
Speaker 1: was very uh excited to play in that game, especially
Speaker 1: five star, you know what I mean, going ahead to head.
Speaker 1: So that was just a fun experience. Has anybody that
Speaker 1: you've played given you a hard time out there? Have
Speaker 1: you played against somebody where you thought to yourself, like,
Speaker 1: damgn man, this dude it is all up on me. Man,
Speaker 1: this dude is doing a good job on me. I
Speaker 1: gotta turn it up an extra level to really get off.
Speaker 1: Is there anybody like that for you? Um? Yeah, he
Speaker 1: went to Oaklad, I don't I don't know his name,
Speaker 1: but it was his closed number thirty two from Oakwood. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: number thirty two from Oakwood. Yeah. I asked my man,
Speaker 1: Oland Simplest, who's an assistant coach over there. I asked
Speaker 1: Big Old about number thirty two, but shouts out to
Speaker 1: number thirty two. You got some props from j Crow Jr. Man.
Speaker 1: What made you fall in love with this game of basketball?
Speaker 1: Just being Ronnie Young? You know, seeing my dad play
Speaker 1: this and made me want to do it as well. Yeah. Now,
Speaker 1: when you're around the game, man, and you're in the
Speaker 1: gym all the time, there's no doubt that you have
Speaker 1: to love. When at what point do you feel like
Speaker 1: during your growing up. Did you say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I really want to go after this basketball thing, Like
Speaker 1: I really think that I could do something in it.
Speaker 1: When did you lock in J two? Probably when I
Speaker 1: was like seven. That's why I really started like loving it.
Speaker 1: So the first couple of years it was like I
Speaker 1: was doing it to impress me my dad. But after
Speaker 1: after a while, I was like, I started really loving you.
Speaker 1: So seven years old, you fell in love with the game.
Speaker 1: You decided to, Hey, I'm gonna start taking this thing seriously.
Speaker 1: Was there any players that you were around when you
Speaker 1: were younger, guys on the truth or college or high
Speaker 1: school that you saw that influenced you, that may motivated you,
Speaker 1: that made you want to, you know, keep hooping and
Speaker 1: go hard. Uh My guy U C l A. Haimi
Speaker 1: Hacks Jr. And uh Er right now, Janie Shackford, you
Speaker 1: need my main two guys I already hang out with
Speaker 1: getting to motivated the Shame and Jim Oh himI and
Speaker 1: Shock were or too high level basketball players. Those aren't
Speaker 1: bad guys to have that you look up to. Um,
Speaker 1: what about the college other than him and you mentioned
Speaker 1: Shackle for the G League? Are there are other college
Speaker 1: players or NBA players that whose game that you absolutely
Speaker 1: love and kind of you know, you study or watch film.
Speaker 1: Really in college, I don't really watch the player. I
Speaker 1: watched the team because college is more of a team game.
Speaker 1: I already watched Katie uh, Yoki Yoki, k D and Janna.
Speaker 1: So those are all sort of guys six eleven that
Speaker 1: were in above. Are there any Is there anybody around
Speaker 1: your height six three six five six seven that you
Speaker 1: like that you see play John Moran, Steph Curry, Luca, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Lucas that dude. Man, how about that stuff Luca has
Speaker 1: been doing men with these easy triple doubles and all
Speaker 1: the scoring prowess fifty sixty. I mean, it's been unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I've heard someone make the comparison of you to a
Speaker 1: guy by the name of Kenny Anderson is a left
Speaker 1: handed point guard, and and another guy we all know
Speaker 1: named Steph Curry. Here a combination of Kitty Edison is
Speaker 1: Steph Kurry. Where people give you these accolades when they
Speaker 1: say these kind of lofty expectations or say these crazy things,
Speaker 1: and compare you to guys that really put it down
Speaker 1: in the n b A or and above. How does
Speaker 1: that make you feel how do you handle that type
Speaker 1: of attention. I try not to think about it too
Speaker 1: much because they're not just a distraction, but I think, uh,
Speaker 1: it's still like I like that they're noticing me and
Speaker 1: uh putting me next to those guys. No, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a big time thing for them to notice you, and
Speaker 1: I would take it with a lot of pride um
Speaker 1: that someone really sees that in you. I try to
Speaker 1: stay away from comparison, especially at this age, because I
Speaker 1: feel like you have so much more to go. I
Speaker 1: think you're you're unique and you and you have your
Speaker 1: own sort of game. I haven't seen a player quite
Speaker 1: like you that is able to finish through contact. I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to you about that. You seem like
Speaker 1: when contact comes knocking on your door, you have no
Speaker 1: problem with it. You actually are welcoming and it seems
Speaker 1: like it gives you a little up so you you
Speaker 1: and ones to even the perimeter defense. When guys are
Speaker 1: bodying you, when you're pushing it up full court, you're
Speaker 1: still just like, oh, and you play right through it.
Speaker 1: Where did you get that stripped? Because you're you know,
Speaker 1: you're you're fourteen years old and to be on the
Speaker 1: high school level. Playing this type of strong man game
Speaker 1: is very unique. Where'd you get your strength? I stayed
Speaker 1: playing my day in the backyard because he used to
Speaker 1: always push me around because I'm always younger. He was
Speaker 1: bigger than me, so like he alway used to push
Speaker 1: me around, just trying to help me finish the contract.
Speaker 1: So that's man, I have. I have experiences playing against
Speaker 1: my dad as well. Man, I played my dad all
Speaker 1: throughout high school. He never let me beat him. And
Speaker 1: my dad was six seven about two forty. He was
Speaker 1: trying to make a comeback to the NBA, so I
Speaker 1: was sort of like his workout partner while he was
Speaker 1: making his comeback. Man, And I'll tell you what what
Speaker 1: that did for my game. I can't even put into
Speaker 1: words because when I started playing against regular dudes my age,
Speaker 1: Oh man, it almost seemed easy. But I won't say easy,
Speaker 1: but it just didn't see like it was very difficult
Speaker 1: because I've been playing against a grown man. Have you
Speaker 1: been able to beat your dad and once? Yet? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I beat him before. Oh really, that's not what he said.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want to play me anymore, so you beat him?
Speaker 1: So wait, so you wasn't the two point game? Was
Speaker 1: it by one? I mean, how did what was the
Speaker 1: score of that game? Because I gotta double check this.
Speaker 1: We played rounds to seven? Oh that's the three okay, okay, okay?
Speaker 1: And how did you beat him? Was it all jumper game?
Speaker 1: Or did you did you try to drive to the
Speaker 1: rack this day? Really? Mitties? I had hell all meties
Speaker 1: because he wouldn't let me, so he went to the middies.
Speaker 1: Oh that's nice, man, that's nice. Let's flip to school, man, Um.
Speaker 1: As a student athlete, very important part of this whole
Speaker 1: process is keeping your grades up, studying your books, taking
Speaker 1: academic Seriously, what's your favorite subject academically in school? I
Speaker 1: say algebra? Wow, so you're a math guy. Yeah, everybody
Speaker 1: a math person, So you know I just picked it up.
Speaker 1: Oh so it was a chip off the old block.
Speaker 1: What is it about algebra that that you like the
Speaker 1: process of figuring out problems, solutions and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: or what I might do with numbers because then numbers
Speaker 1: come to money. So oh that's true. That's true. That's
Speaker 1: that's a good that's a good skill set to learn. Now, um,
Speaker 1: when you when we talk about your interests as far
Speaker 1: as outside of basketball, music, Uh, whether it be entertainment.
Speaker 1: What what things do you like to do in your downtime.
Speaker 1: I know you don't have a lot of downtime now
Speaker 1: because it's either school, working out or something. But when
Speaker 1: you have downtime, what does Jason Crow Jr. Like to do? Usually?
Speaker 1: I like, uh, haying out my my fellow teammates, and
Speaker 1: then just sometimes just channel with my family, watching TV,
Speaker 1: watching movie. You know what I mean. Now, that's real cool, man,
Speaker 1: that's real cool. You sound like you're real chill man
Speaker 1: and just kind of lock then and waiting for the
Speaker 1: next workout. Uh waiting. You know, you're just wait, counting
Speaker 1: down the hours till you gotta get up and hit
Speaker 1: the gym again. And that's a good lifestyle to be it. Man,
Speaker 1: I lived that life too, so I know exactly how
Speaker 1: that feels. What type of shoes do you w hoop in? Well?
Speaker 1: I usually poop in the bron twenties Okay, Oh, which
Speaker 1: Kobe's the shoes? Well, Kobe sixes six Oh yeah, the
Speaker 1: sixes are the ones. Man. Yeah, with the slept on shoot.
Speaker 1: I said, it's the data exhibit as the exhibit as
Speaker 1: from a data's Huh, Yes, they're comfortable, very comfortable and light. Okay,
Speaker 1: So for you and like you like feeling light when
Speaker 1: you're on the court, you like feeling a shoe that
Speaker 1: is sturdy and light, or you you don't care about
Speaker 1: the sturdiness. You just need something light on your feet.
Speaker 1: I need lighting sturdy, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. I
Speaker 1: to keep it from springing spring in your ankles. Man,
Speaker 1: how how is the attention, all the attention, I mean
Speaker 1: from Bleacher Report to the l A times, You've You've
Speaker 1: been plastered all over the internet. Everybody's reading about you,
Speaker 1: talking about you. How do you stay grounded through all
Speaker 1: this and not let that stuff get to your head? Um? Really,
Speaker 1: just my parents they teach me how to keep down
Speaker 1: and stay humble, so they until now with me every day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's probably one of the most important parts, man, to
Speaker 1: this whole process. I Mean we can say, you know,
Speaker 1: working out and all that, but staying humble, staying you know,
Speaker 1: uniquely grateful for everything that you have every single day. Man,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the move. Um, if I was to
Speaker 1: pull up on y'all before y'all had a game, y'all
Speaker 1: got two games this week, I know, but if I
Speaker 1: was to pull up right now, I walk in the
Speaker 1: locker room. I see you listening on your air pods
Speaker 1: over there, trying to lock in what song will be
Speaker 1: playing before a big game. Probably, uh, Slie Belief by
Speaker 1: NBA Young Boy. Okay, so you're NBA young boy guy.
Speaker 1: You like NBA. He's just someone I listened too, really
Speaker 1: only before games, not really like I like the game.
Speaker 1: Oh so he's good to turn up and get you hyped. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what about I had Gravanni rough on here the other day.
Speaker 1: He said, King Vaughan is what he listens to. You
Speaker 1: like kings Von too. Yeah, he's solid. It's not that's
Speaker 1: not your flow though, that's not your flex. Oh that's funny.
Speaker 1: Um Man, When you think about have you thought about
Speaker 1: college at all? Is that something that you think about
Speaker 1: it at this age? Like what what kind of what
Speaker 1: goes to your thoughts? Are you just focused on high
Speaker 1: school basketball or do you start thinking ahead? Um? Kind
Speaker 1: of both. I think about college sometimes, but really right now,
Speaker 1: I'm just locking into the high school season right now. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: that's that's a good that's a good bet because you
Speaker 1: have so much time. But you know, sometimes it's really
Speaker 1: it's not really too early to are at least just thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, just establishing, you know, sort of like where
Speaker 1: you may want, what part of the country you may
Speaker 1: want to play, and what type of conference, and what
Speaker 1: type of you know, collegiate atmosphere that she may want
Speaker 1: to play, and have you thought about any of those things.
Speaker 1: You don't have to name a specific school. But are
Speaker 1: you a West Coast dude? Are you? Are you anti
Speaker 1: going to the code? You're not messing with the South
Speaker 1: and the heat? What's up? I really don't care. As
Speaker 1: long as they gave me an opportunity to uh lead me,
Speaker 1: I don't care. Man, talk about just quickly shout out
Speaker 1: how much your mom has meant. I know you know,
Speaker 1: as basketball players, we always talk about our pop, especially
Speaker 1: when they hoot, but our moms are really really a
Speaker 1: big part of our life. Talk about your mom and
Speaker 1: just how much she's meant for your basketball and personal development. Oh,
Speaker 1: she's every game, she makes sure he will, she cook
Speaker 1: every meal. She almost at every game, trying to support me.
Speaker 1: She sometimes lotted in the coach. How that? How does
Speaker 1: that make you feel where you can hear her instead
Speaker 1: of your coach? I mean a moment, I don't really
Speaker 1: like it, but like at the end, I'm just thinking
Speaker 1: for it. Yeah. Absolutely. How is it planning for your dad? Man? Sometimes?
Speaker 1: You know, I coached my son, it was it was
Speaker 1: a tough thing. You know. How has it been playing
Speaker 1: for your pops in your first high school season? Uh,
Speaker 1: it's been exciting. Something I've been looking forward to because
Speaker 1: we've been talking about this for a while. So just
Speaker 1: fun and it's going out high plan. It was going
Speaker 1: to what are your goals for the second half of
Speaker 1: this season for Lynnwood? Uh? Try to win the championship
Speaker 1: and make a deep playoff run. And how you guys
Speaker 1: gonna do that? Where when you look at your team
Speaker 1: right now, you look at what you guys have accomplished
Speaker 1: so far, and you know where you gotta get to.
Speaker 1: What needs to happen for the Lynwood Nights to hang
Speaker 1: a banner in that gym. Uh just communication on the court. Uh,
Speaker 1: really just locking on defensive end. Defensively, So is it
Speaker 1: a team defense or individual defense that you feel like
Speaker 1: you guys can improve the most? This team defense? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we all defensive strength and we gotta do it
Speaker 1: as collective. UNI. I'll tell you what Jake. One of
Speaker 1: the things that you know, you really should, you know,
Speaker 1: get on guys about is talking. You know, make make
Speaker 1: your communication defensively like the most important thing that you
Speaker 1: guys can do, because the more you talk on the court,
Speaker 1: the better y'all are gonna be. There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: Um Man, that's been Uh, that's that's been some amazing stuff. Man.
Speaker 1: I I sit and I watched your game, man, and
Speaker 1: and I just look to see what you're gonna do next.
Speaker 1: I mean, you really have showed up and shown out
Speaker 1: so far this season. It's been a joy to watch
Speaker 1: you play. And I have no doubt, man, that you're
Speaker 1: gonna keep this thing going. I appreciate you for stopping
Speaker 1: by kJ Live. Are there any shout outs that you
Speaker 1: want to give before I let you go? Just shout
Speaker 1: out to Lenore High School? And I said, man, Jason
Speaker 1: Crow Jr. I appreciate you.