Crowder: 'I'll Never Stop Putting in the Work'

http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/prac-121915-crowder-on-work-ethic-ill-never-stop-putting-in-the-work








Crowder: 'I'll Never Stop Putting in the Work'



Posted: Dec 19, 2015



By Marc D'Amico |  @Marc_DAmico
Celtics.com


December 19, 2015




WALTHAM, Mass. – Hard work pays off.

That cliché is proving itself to be true in the form of Celtics forward Jae Crowder.

Crowder is in the midst of the hottest shooting stretch of his four-year NBA career. Over his last 10 games, ranging back to late November, the forward is shooting 93.9 percent from the free-throw line and 43.1 percent from beyond the arc.

Those numbers rank fifth and 21st in the NBA, respectively, among players who have attempted at least 20 free throws or 20 3-pointers.

Crowder’s recent numbers aren’t just good. They are great. And Crowder credits his work ethic for helping him attain the aim of a basketball sniper.

“A lot of guys don’t know how to work,” he said. “With that being said, I do what benefits me at the end of the day.”

At any time of the day, you are likely to be able to find Crowder and his unmistakable dreadlocks flying around a gym. He is undoubtedly one of the hardest workers in the NBA, let alone within this young and hungry group of current Celtics.

If you happened to catch him working out, you’d quickly realize that he does so in quite a particular manner.

“Very, very deliberate,” Brad Stevens says of Crowder’s work ethic, noting that such a comment is one of the best compliments he can give a player. “He works on things that apply to his game.”

Every time Crowder walks into an individual workout, his goal is to sharpen the tools that he will utilize most during game action. Everything else moves to the back burner.

“Trailing into the 3,” he says, as he begins to rattle off the skills he works on each and every day. “One-dribble, two-dribble jump shots. Sliding on the perimeter to catch and shoot.

“I do a lot of different game-like drills that help me translate my work into the game.”

Jamie Young, one of Boston’s assistant coaches who is also Crowder’s coach for individual workouts, elaborated on Crowder’s approach.

“He’s focused,” Young says of Crowder’s mindset during workouts. “A lot of guys at times just shoot to shoot. He shoots game-type shots, with a game-type of focus.”

This isn’t necessarily a common theme amongst NBA players, as both Young’s and Stevens’ comment suggest. Many players attempt to add too much to their game, failing to recognize that the skills they already have are not quite sharp enough to breed high-level success.

Crowder is different. He’s confident, but he is far from cocky. He believes that his quest for greatness will never end, regardless of whether or not he has been red-hot for nearly a month.

“I’ll never stop putting in the work,” he says. “I’m always going to come back and put up some shots here and there at night. I’m always going to shoot after practice. I’m always going to shoot before practice. I’m always going to do the little things like that to keep everything afloat and keep improving.”

Such a work ethic has been long in the making. It began developing during Crowder’s early days of basketball, when he worked out with his father and former NBA player, Corey Crowder. It continued into his first three seasons in Dallas, where Mavs coach Rick Carlisle pushed him to be a great shooter.

“He worked so hard with me on that,” Crowder remembers. “Every summer, from my rookie year to my sophomore year, from my sophomore year to my third year, he just stayed on me, and when I started seeing some increase in my shot-making and seeing what I could do, that’s when I started believing, ‘I can really shoot the ball in this league.’”

Now, during his first full season with the Celtics, Crowder is forcing everyone else to join him in believing.

He may be in the midst of a career year, but his quest to be great will never end. He’ll forever be motivated, and he’ll forever be deliberate.

For Crowder, “hard work pays off” is more than just a cliché. It’s real life.



bob
MY NOTE:  How does one work at "finishing"?


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