Photo: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images
Dejounte Murray, point guard for the San Antonio Spurs, has shone this season 2016-2022 and has been selected to the All-Star Game, but his family background and crime almost got in his way to the NBA.
Murray grew up in the South End neighborhood of Seattle, where 75% of children live below the poverty line and a 95% of them are black.
“I have always been quiet about my past. I am traumatized with everything that happened. I only think of that child in the streets, surrounded by gangs and drugs and doing anything to get some money. It was what it had to be. It was that way or it wasn’t, directly”, said the player.
Murray He has spoken about some cases of violence that occurred in his family, after his father was absent, his mother was in jail several times and his great-grandmother was also related to drug gangs. The Spurs point guard was even imprisoned at 11 year old.
“For me that was nothing. He was not afraid of jail. For me it was normal. Get arrested, traffic, die. It was the usual thing in my family”, recalled Murray in a report in Sports Illustrated.
In 2016 at the time of the draft, many NBA teams, knowing his past, did not want to take him into account for their selection, which allowed the San Antonio Spurs choose him and with the help of Greg Popovich, become one of the best pilots and players in the NBA.
Murray was the great protagonist of the triumph of this Friday against the Hawks with 32 points, 10 bounces and 15 assists, becoming the player with the most triple-doubles (15) in Spurs history, surpassing the mark set by David Robinson.
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