Why LeBron James’ appearance at Jamal Crawford’s CrawsOver Pro-Am was cut short

Abraham Smith

With LeBron James headlining, anticipation for Jamal Crawford’s CrawsOver Pro-Am on Saturday was at an all-time high.

fans began queue hours before James’ game, in which he would be joined by a group of NBA players including All-Stars Dejounte Murray and Jayson Tatum, and high-profile rookies Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren. Basically, an All-Star game was supposed to be taking place on the Seattle Pacific University campus.

James’ entry into the gym was a visual reminder of the command he has as one of the biggest stars on the planet.

Unfortunately, his time on the ground was short-lived.

MORE: A look back at LeBron James’ Pro-Am history

Why LeBron James’ CrawsOver Pro-Am Appearance Was Cancelled

Usually the statement from someone “shutting down” a Pro-Am comes with a highlights package and stats, but here it takes on a literal meaning as the game was called out in Q2 Player safety concerns related to condensation on the square.

Crawford later took to Twitter to apologize to the fans who couldn’t get in and thanked the players who attended, adding, “I had to make the decision to stop the game to protect the players.”

Despite the fact that the game didn’t make it to halftime, Tatum found a way to create plenty of highlights and scored a quick 20 points that night. While re-sharing his highlights on Twitter, Tatum said, “(I) hate that it had to end like this,” while promising to bring his son Deuce next time he’s there.

Somehow James and Tatum were on the same team resulting in an unfair pro-am pairing that managed to give us a highlight before the end.

LeBron also prevailed with an individual highlight.

While the early end of the game was unfortunate, the event was a win on multiple levels.

14 years after the departure of the SuperSonics from the Pacific Northwest, the city of Seattle was once again the undisputed center of the NBA world.

To before expressing his excitementLeBron returned to Twitter to call the event “special…even when we had to stop the game because of things we couldn’t control.”

Isaiah Thomas, a native of Tacoma, Washington, made sure to share how big the moment had been.

Rockets rookie and Seattle native Tari Eason saw a “lifetime dream” come true months before his first NBA game.

And most importantly, weeks after the two engaged in a war of words on social media, it seems like Banchero and Murray have settled their differences.

With NBA training camp just a few weeks away, there may not be many more appearances in Pro-Am leagues. If so, let’s hope the next “shut down” is one of the good kind.

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