Inside The Huskies

Dejounte Murray Has Never Been Better as an NBA Player

The former University of Washington basketball player turns in a career outing highlighting his versatility.

Dan Raley

Dejounte Murray spent just a season at the University of Washington and he scurried off to the NBA.

Had he stayed another season or two, Lorenzo Romar might still be the Husky basketball coach.

Eager to turn pro, Murray was supposed to be a lottery pick. However, he heard whispers that teams, after doing their background checks, had concerns that he once was "a gang member." He dropped to the 29th overall selection of the 2016 draft.

"I got judged for stuff I did when I was 13, 14, 15," he said, revealing that he'd spent time in juvenile-detention as a Rainier Beach High School sophomore. "I was thankful to get picked."

Murray next had to play 15 games in the G-league to become pro trustworthy.

He tore up a knee and missed the entire 2018-19 NBA season.

He watched a Spurs dynasty end and he's trying to jumpstart another. 

Five years after leaving the Huskies behind, it's all coming together for Murray, who's all of 24 years. 

Take Monday night, for instance.

The kid from South Seattle, so clever on offense and aggressive on defense, turned in a career stat line in a 105-101 victory over the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry tough to emulate: 27 points, 10 rebounds, 8 steals and 4 assists.

His teammates were duly impressed, particularly Spurs forward Demar DeRozan, the former USC Trojan standout.

"To see him go out there and get eight steals, be all over the floor, taking on the challenge on both ends against another one of the best point guards to ever play this game, shows the competitor that he is," DeRozan said.

The Spurs improved their season record to 14-10 behind Murray's all-around heroics, which have been a season-long trend.

The day after Christmas, he turned in his first career triple-double, supplying 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in San Antonio's 119-114 victory over Toronto at home.

A month later, Murray went for 11 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists against the Washington Wizards in a 121-101 win at home.

He averages a career-best 14.4 points, 7 rebounds and 5.2 assists per outing.

As his career embodies that of an established veteran peaking in his career, Murray has used basketball role models to get where he is. 

The late Kobe Bryant comes to mind.

"Honestly, I've just tried to have a Mamba mentality," he said. "I've watched a lot of Kobe stuff. Like what would Kobe do?"

Another NBA player who helped guide him to the big show, if not to manhood, was Jamal Crawford. 

A fellow Rainier Beach alum and now retired from the game, Crawford often encouraged the young guard to pursue his dreams and put the street-hustler nightmares behind him, and he did. They've shared a lot of text messages and phone calls.

He also has a tough-minded Spurs coach in Gregg Popovich to keep him pointed in the right direction. He welcomes this sort of attention.

'I always want to be pushed," Murray said. "I'm thankful for him and like I tell him, 'Stay on my ass.' I'm thankful to have him mainly on the floor. He's like that father figure in my life.".

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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