Zach LaVine and Jamal Crawford have a strong friendship that goes back to their close ties to the Seattle-area and Crawford's summer Pro-Am, "The Crawsover."

When discussing LaVine's growth as a player with NBC Sports Chicago Bulls insider KC Johnson, Crawford maintained the stance that the masses would start to quickly appreciate LaVine for the great player he is once the Bulls garner a bit more team success.

"I think it's [LaVine's game] continuing to grow. You can look at him as one of the young stars in the league and I don't think he'll be validated until the Bulls have a winning season and they're in the playoffs and then people are like, 'Oh! He's an All-Star.' It happens that fast.

"But I think right now he's setting the groundwork down and showing he can be a consistent, capable star who can lead his team every single night and the wins, once that change in the circumstances [takes place] then everything else changes after that and people look at you in a different light. And then you get the respect...you deserve."

Nobody's gonna outwork him. He's such a great young man and...he's somebody you want leading your franchise. And even if some people don't see it right now I guarantee they will see it soon enough." -Jamal Crawfrd on Zach LaVine's incredible work ethic

That's certainly quite the strong endorsement from the Seattle-native and Crawford also went on to rib LaVine a bit, saying that he teased him about falling one-point short of 50 in the Bulls' Nov. 23 win over the Charlotte Hornets. This was the same game in which LaVine hit 13 shots from 3-point range, the second-most in a single game in NBA history.

This was yet another performance that was a testament to the immense potential that Crawford says LaVine possesses. With a new regime in place in the Chicago front office, the Bulls could be heading towards the team success needed to boost LaVine's game to the forefront of the NBA discourse.

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