#Jamal Crawford’s 20th NBA season may have lasted 5 minutes

The venerable guard made his season debut for the Nets on Tuesday, but was forced out of Brooklyn’s game against the Bucks in the second quarter with a left hamstring injury. He will not return.

Crawford finished with five points in five minutes, shooting 2-of-4 overall and 1-of-2 from deep, handing out three assists without a turnover. He clearly gave Brooklyn a lift, a plus-4 in his short stint, after not having played a second in any of the three scrimmages or the first two restart games in an attempt to get him up to speed conditioning-wise.

“I think a few things, (the plan is) to allow him to play in an NBA game again, see how he feels, his readiness,” interim Jacque Vaughn had said beforehand. “Our communication has been great to get to this point, and he signified that he wanted to give it a go, so looking forward to it.

“Jamal will come off the bench, and I will have complete and ultra-communication with the performance staff and Jamal getting feedback on what the minutes feel like for him. Again, we’ll always stress the importance of being healthy right now and going forward. So short stints of minutes to see how he responds and we’ll continue to get feedback as the game goes on and after the game.”

That health is now out the window.

Now it’s uncertain when – or if – he’ll play again this season. It’s disappointing considering he reaffirmed his status as a walking bucket. In his last appearance — the 2019 regular-season finale for the Suns — he had poured in 51 points, the oldest man to ever crack 50.

“I think he had 50 in his last game,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer had said beforehand. “So I hope he doesn’t have 50 today.”

At 40 years and 137 days old, Crawford became the oldest player to ever suit up for the Nets. He is only the eighth player in NBA history to appear in 20 different seasons. But the rest of this season is now in question, especially given it is a soft tissue injury at this advanced age.

Crawford was forced from the game shortly after he gave the Nets a 42-37 lead on a pullup jumper. He got tangled up with Khris Middleton on a screen and pulled his hamstring, hopping and clutching at the back of his leg.

Middleton got called for a foul, and Crawford gave way to point guard Jeremiah Martin.