clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Jazz gift Jae Crowder his dad's 20 year old shoes

Crowder seemed both wildly confused and thrilled at the same time with the gesture.

Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

Boston's been both a strange and exhilarating experience for Jae Crowder.

Many probably didn't know too much about him when he arrived in the Rajon Rondo trade but in a year plus with the team he's become a fabric of their identity as a team. He earned a hefty new contract, the admiration of the fan base, and a firmly established spot in the team's starting rotation.

There's also been some weird moments, the latest right out of the all-star break before the Celtics' west coast matchup against the Jazz.

Corey Crowder, the man who created Jae, formally played for the Jazz in the 1991-1992 season before heading to Europe for most his remaining professional basketball career that lasted until 2005.

Jae was born in 1990 and as he arrived on the court with the C's Friday morning for shoot-around a Jazz representative approached him with one of the most unexpected gifts he's probably ever received: a pair of his father's shoes from his lone season in Utah.

"L.A. Gear," Crowder exclaimed in Jay King's piece regarding the strange story. "Remember those? I believe Karl Malone got him some back in the day."

Shoes from a legend, 20 years old, who knows where they were all this time. Did the Jazz somehow know Jae would be coming? Were they waiting for Corey to come back and get them? Who knows, but they made sure to remember to dump them off to Crowder when he arrived for today's game, so I guess all that's left in the lost-and-found is John Stockton's 20 year old underwear.

Despite how strange it was Jae seemed pretty thrilled about the whole ordeal, it hit him out of nowhere, but actually turned into a special father-son moment:

"He said he was tearing up over the phone...it was just something that came out of nowhere for us. And for him to still have his shoes 20 years later is unbelievable. So we'll take care of that, I'll take care of that, and put them in a glass box for him, and have that for a long time."

I guess we know where Crowder's passion comes from.

This story was pretty dope, but it's still not my favorite Crowder moment in green. Enjoy the throwback.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for the Celtics Blog Daily Roundup newsletter!

A daily roundup of Boston Celtics news from Celtics Blog