Dejounte Murray, former UW guard, is shown with the New Orleans Pelicans this past season. Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

Dejounte Murray Reflects on Seattle Street Past Once More

Originally posted on Washington Huskies on SI
By Dan Raley | Last updated Jun 18, 2025 4:11 PM ET

Every so often, Dejounte Murray, the former University of Washington basketball player turned NBA headliner, offers another glimpse of his life on the Seattle streets, this time while appearing on the Pivot Podcast.

The 6-foot-4 guard for the New Orleans Pelicans previously mentioned how he used to run with urban gangs in the city's south end. He told how he was in and out of juvenile detention.

This time, Murray got reflective on the fate of some of those friends or acquaintances -- mentioning how they're in prison serving 20- to 80-year sentences or a worse fate -- in comparison to how his life has turned out.

"They're in prison. Some of them are dead," he said. "Why not me? What makes me so different than them. We were doing the same things."

Dejounte Murray wasn't just another draft pick to Gregg Popovich.

He was a young man with real trauma, real pain, and a complicated background...and Pop saw that. He saw a life, not just a player.

When Dejounte's mom got shot during his rookie year with the Spurs, Pop didn't… pic.twitter.com/iBDBbi8Ckr
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) June 18, 2025

The 6-foot-4 Murray, considered one of the NBA's more all-around playmakers, has been in the league for eight seasons, but tore an Achilles tendon this past winter and was done by January. He's in recovery.

In his podcast interview, he also mentioned how his mother was shot in the leg when he was an NBA rookie and his then San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich didn't want him returning to Seattle. So Popovich tried to make arrangements to move her from the Northwest to Texas, using his own financial resources.

"That sound like a dude that care about me and love me, right?" Murray said. "That's who Pop is."

“Why did God choose me? Why?” - @DejounteMurray

Dejounte Murray lives everyday with the guilt of survivor’s remorse. All of his childhood friends are dead or in jail. He communicates with them daily… not because of the guilt, but because he loves them.

They know his heart,… pic.twitter.com/2lPn6R9Iyn
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) June 17, 2025

Murray, who has shared how his mother had been in and out of prison, played just one winter of college basketball in Seattle, going one-and-done with Lorenzo Romar's Huskies in the 2015-16 season. He went to the Spurs with the 29th overall draft pick that summer.

He still communicates with some of the people from his past, unwilling to turn his back on those who didn't come out of the days gone past as well as he did.

"I don't party, I don't drink, I don't smoke," he said. "I know what I want. I got blessed with something that sounds impossible."

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This article first appeared on Washington Huskies on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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