The Story Of Jamal Crawford Helping Turn Dejounte Murray's Life Around And Getting Him To The NBA Is Legit Awesome

Listening to Dejounte Murray talk about his childhood and upbringing is legit wild. He talks fairly openly - as he says as open as he can be - about shit he saw and how close he was to being a legit gang member in Seattle. Instead he's turned into one of the better young players and a key member of the core the Spurs have going forward. A large reason for that? 

Jamal Crawford. 

Crawford is absolutely revered in Seattle, which makes a ton of sense. On top of that both Murray and Crawford went to Rainier Beach so Crawford took Murray under his wing in a way as he says. Like Murray explains, Crawford saw him playing in open gym as a freshman in high school and made sure to talk to him about getting his shit together. That's legit awesome. I know you hear stories like this from time to time but both guys turning into legit NBA players is awesome - no other way to put it. 

I actually didn't know too much about Murray's background. I forgot that he had that 'gang member' tag on him during the NBA Draft and the Spurs didn't care. They were willing to take the 'risk' and it's paid off. It's also why it's cool to see Murray keep giving back, including recently hanging out with kids just playing hoops with them. 

Either way the entire interview about how Murray transitioned into a NBA prospect is fascinating.