Clippers’ Jamal Crawford on season starting: It feels like Christmas

Jamal Crawford loves basketball.

He loves it so much that he spent the night before his wedding playing a pickup game with some of his teammates and friends. He loves it so much that over the summer he would watch random people play pickup games at L.A. Fitness gyms so he could stay close to the sport.

His big day has finally arrived -- the NBA regular season begins Tuesday -- and boy is he happy ... even if the Clippers don’t play their opener until Thursday.

“I feel like a kid the night before Christmas,” Crawford said. “I’m always excited about the NBA, and we’re not even playing.”

Crawford, however, apparently has some basketball-watching standards.

“I’m ready just to watch, to watch the Lakers and Houston and San Antonio-Dallas,” Crawford said. “Not Orlando-New Orleans so much.”

Crawford, who missed the team’s final exhibition against the Portland Trail Blazers because of hamstring soreness, said he feels 100% healthy.

The reigning NBA sixth man of the year, Crawford, 34, has never won an NBA championship. Heading into the season opener against Oklahoma City at Staples Center, he said he feels a sense of urgency for the Clippers to go far.

“You understand that this moment is kind of ours,” Crawford said. “You understand that you don’t get a lot of opportunities like this and this window can close fast, so we have to take advantage of the opportunity.”