The NBA off-season is filled with WojBombs, empty gym workout videos, and the occasional appearance at fashion week. While NBA players have been active in Pro-Am leagues and tournaments for decades, their visibility has increased dramatically in the social media age. This summer, after an impromptu appearance by LeBron James, The Drew League in Los Angeles has seen their games streamed on NBATV. Jamal Crawford’s The CrawsOver in Seattle is making national headlines. In publicizing these games many fans are getting an unfiltered look at the stars of the league. Insert Dejounte Murray.
The Seattle native was traded to Atlanta from San Antonio at the end of June. Murray turns 26 years old this August, and Atlanta hopes the backcourt pairing of him and fellow All-Star Trae Young fuels a new era of Hawk basketball. Murray is a proud Washingtonian. He dons Mariners gear before games, praises Crawford as a Seattle legend, and got his future Hawks teammates (Young and John Collins) to play with him in The CrawsOver.
But this summer, while he’s been hooping in Washington… Dejounte Murray has been a weirdo.
For instance, Murray has been caught on film unnecessarily hitting people in the head with the ball twice in two filmed events this summer.
Dejounte Murray gives a few bonks on his opponent’s head in the Crawsover Pro-Am pic.twitter.com/sDLGyJzwvC
— hoops bot (@hoops_bot) August 1, 2022
Dejounte Murray been on one ????
— Overtime (@overtime) August 8, 2022
(via wholelottabuckets/TT) pic.twitter.com/bLSOfN7Rri
Beef with Banchero
At a Pro-Am even in Tacoma, Washington, Murray squared up against fellow Seattle native and the most recent number one overall pick Paolo Banchero. Banchero, who is a half-foot taller and nearly 60 lbs heavier than Murray, bit on a ballfake Murray made. Murray then stuck out a leg that tripped up the soon-to-be rookie and threw the ball off the glass to himself for an alley-oop. Crowd went bananas.
Dejounte Murray crazy self oop at the Zeke End Tournament @DejounteMurray pic.twitter.com/N9bAZ9uw9x
— Home Team Hoops (@HomeTeamHoops) August 8, 2022
But that’s not all. Murray had choice words as the game wrapped up. After taking a foul to wave to the crowd and end his day, Murray called the 19-year-old “a little boy.”
"He too soft" ????
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 8, 2022
Dejounte Murray let Paolo Banchero hear it during their run yesterday
(via @HomeTeamHoops) pic.twitter.com/9ul3dVsbx2
Perhaps Murray isn’t happy the spotlight is being taken off of him at these Seattle events. Maybe he’s upset another Seattleite is grabbing NBA headlines. Whatever the case, the Murray and Banchero beef was carried off of the floor. Per Banchero’s Instagram story, Murray unfollowed the former Washingtonian mentee. Banchero said “lol unfollowed me on tha gram n everything it must be personal huh? that’s fine jus make sure u guard up next time n stop sending doubles family.”
Murray’s response?..
Humble?!
Reportedly, in the Tacoma event, Banchero ended the day with 40 points and the win. Banchero’s Orlando Magic and Murray’s Atlanta Hawks both play in the same division. Thus, they will square off four times in the 2022-23 season. Banchero has always praised the Seattle-born NBA players before him, from Crawford to Isaiah Thomas to Murray himself, and wears “206” (Seattle’s area code) above street signs in his neighborhood and below the Seattle Space needle in a tattoo sleeve on his arm. That Banchero was anything short of respectful and defferential to a Seattle born NBA All-Star feels unreal.
Further, Dejounte Murray is not quite the most humble person himself. After forcing his way out of San Antonio, a franchise with one of the best 20-year runs in American team sports history, Murray sure wasn’t humble or complimentary about the franchise that elevated him from the 29th pick to an NBA All-Star. In an Instagram comment, replying to bait from an anonymous user, Murray said “The way that the system set up you gone be losing for the next 15 yrs!!! Problem bigger than basketball.” Murray clarified that his comments had “nothing to do with the fans,” thus the observer is left to assume it is directed at the organization. The Spurs had been rebuilding around Murray, and a couple of other talented young players, before the trade was “mutually agreed to” by both Murray and San Antonio.
I’m far from one to think that franchises are without fault, and there may have been something San Antonio did that hurt Murray’s career somehow. But to date, has Murray done anything to give him the grounds to call a nineteen-year-old kid not humble? Even if Banchero’s ego, previously reported nonexistent, somehow ballooned in roughly a month after the NBA Draft, is Dejounte Murray the judge and jury on how much ego is too much ego?
Or, does Murray just have a habit of biting off more than he can chew? Who could forget when he (feebly) tried to buck back and shove James Harden? Harden, a perennial All-Star and MVP candidate, was fresh off of a season where he averaged 36.1 points per game, the second highest total over a season since the merger (to just Michael Jordan). How would someone humbly play against Harden?
Never forget when Dejounte Murray pushed James Harden with all his strength and it barely moved Harden pic.twitter.com/B1H1tC52Jm
— ᵂᴵᴸᴸ (@BiasedHouston) August 8, 2022
Weirdo?
Between bonking random guys in the head with the ball in the head at Pro-Ams, starting beef with teenagers, and demanding respect he never issued… What are we left to make of Dejounte Murray?
He’s not malicious. Unlike other NBA bruisers, Murray isn’t squaring up to fight guys. Perhaps it’s because Banchero and Harden are both noticeably and visibly stronger than the 180 lbs. two-guard. But if Murray were ready to fight it’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t just throw a punch. Growing up in Rainier Beach, Seattle, Murray undoubtedly saw plenty of fighting. That’s all to say that if Murray wanted to throw hands, he’d at least know how. But he didn’t.
He’s also not dumb. In a lull of summer storylines, the whole world is talking about Murray. Further, it adds fuel to the fire for the four Hawks and Magic matchups in the upcoming season, and it feels incredibly unlikely that Atlanta loses those games. Last season, Atlanta beat Orlando in three out of four matchups. Each win was by 12 or more points. The lone loss was missing both All-Star Trae Young and Danilo Gallinari– the guy they traded to bring Murray in. Eyes will now be on that matchup… and that matchup heavily favors the Hawks. Any trash talk from the Hawks will undoubtedly be supported by their performance on the floor.
Murray is, however, being a weirdo. Why is he doing this? Why start any beef with a kid who has yet to play in an NBA game? And why strike guys in the head for no reason?
Albeit in important NBA playoff games, and thus games the whole world was watching, but there was a time when Draymond Green couldn’t stop kicking guys in the groin. The overwhelming response, after peeling back layers of code, was “this is more about him being weird than anything.” Now that Murray is occupying a similar space, even if it’s in summer Pro-Ams, does it not require the same conversation?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with being weird. Before the tech companies took over, Keep Austin Weird was a popular mantra. The Workaholics proudly chanted “let’s get weird” before charging into shenanigans. Jim Morrison asked the world “where’s your will to be weird?”
Dejounte Murray becoming the NBA’s newest weirdo was not on my off-season bingo card. But weirder things have happened.
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