A friend of Collins, she was a captain and MVP of the Tar Heels’ 1994 NCAA championship squad. After graduation, the 6-foot-5 center began an 11-year pro career that took her to Europe and Asia and ended when she retired from the San Antonio Silverstars of the WNBA last April. She once won the ABL Slam Dunk Contest and represented her country five times in international competitions.
She captivated the audience at James Moore Gymnasium with her commanding presence and the story of her inauspicious start in the game of basketball.
“I was 6-feet-1 when I was in the seventh grade,” she told them,” and I was terrible. My feet never left the ground because I was taller than everyone and I figured why should I jump.”
She told about getting one of her first breaks in basketball as a freshman in high school. She was one of the last people on the team to get in games averaging, she said, just 22 seconds of action per game. But late in one contest she and another bench warmer finally got the call from the coach. Her teammate declined to go in. Crawley’s hustling and productive minute of action caught the attention of a college scout.
“You’ve got to have a good attitude at all times,” she said to the campers,” because you never know whose watching you.”
She says she was told many times she was too slender to make it in college or the pros.
“If you tell me I can’t do something, I’m going to try as hard as I can to prove you wrong. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do something.”
Had Collins not decided it was time to get back to basketball, the question and answer session might still be going on. The quality of the questions would put some network and cable interviewers to shame.
One youngster asked why female players don’t go directly into the WNBA like the men do in the NBA? Crawley told them that the key to getting into the WNBA is college - that the women don’t get the seven figure salaries the men do making the $40,000 value of a scholarship very significant. Another asked her if she has been able to make use of her college degree (Communications). Good stuff.
And then there were: (Camper) “How did you do against Lisa Leslie,”? (Crawley) “I won some battles and she won some.”(Camper) Have you met Carmelo Anthony,” (Crawley)”No, but I was in a commercial with LeBron James.”
