San Antonio Spurs’ Gregg Popopvich Gets Praise From 1x All-Star

Murray appeared as a guest on “The Pivot Podcast,” where he had high praise for Pop. According to the 6-foot-5 guard, he views the winningest coach in NBA history as a father figure.

“He was like the father figure that I was missing,” Murray said. “Consistently. That show up to the gym every day… I don’t know about this corporate stuff, I don’t know this business stuff. So, getting to be around him, a leader that’s teaching me how to be a man, how to be a professional, how to go about your work, how you treat people.

“That was a man who cared about me, that was a man who wanted me to reach my full potential in life first — then as a basketball player.

Murray’s relationship with Pop goes beyond basketball as the San Antonio Spurs’ president of basketball operations looked out for the young guard during his rookie year. In his first NBA season, his mother sustained a gunshot wound in the leg. Without the point guard knowing, Pop offered to move Dejounte’s mother to San Antonio using his own money.

“He’s so real, he tried to move my mom to San Antonio with his own money after she got shot… he called her himself, without me knowing until after the fact… That sounds like a dude that cares about me and loves me, right?”

The former San Antonio Spurs point guard revealed what happened in his first year with the Pelicans

There was a certain level of excitement for Dejounte Murray’s first season with the Pelicans. However, the former San Antonio Spurs point guard suffered an unfortunate injury that limited him to 31 games. In his guest appearance on “The Pivot Podcast,” he talked about what went wrong.

“It was a situation where, like, I got all these problems going on… I broke my hand, and I’m recovering. My mom had a stroke, one of my cousins got killed, then my uncle overdosed,” Murray said.

He also revealed that he wasn’t getting the attention he needed from the organization, including getting his own court time at practice. Murray had to do his best and go through everything, which became difficult, especially mentally.