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Murray Earns First All-Star Appearance as Injury Fill-in

The former UW guard gets a reprieve after previously not getting selected.
Dan Raley|
Murray Earns First All-Star Appearance as Injury Fill-in
Murray Earns First All-Star Appearance as Injury Fill-in

For Dejounte Murray, it hurts so good.

Taking advantage of other's misfortune, the former University of Washington guard on Monday was selected as an injury replacement to the NBA All-Star Game — making his first appearance.

Murray, in his fifth season with the San Antonio Spurs, and the Charlotte Hornets' Lamelo Ball accepted spots previously awarded the New Jersey Nets' Kevin Durant, who has a sprained MCL, and the Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green, who's dealing with a back injury.

For Murray, it's personal vindication for him after enjoying a superstar-in-the-making season so far and getting passed over when the starters and the reserves were picked for the 71st All-Star Game on Feb. 20 in Cleveland.

It was an emotional moment for the kid from South Seattle, who tweeted, remembering draft day and a season lost to a knee injury: "I Remember Sitting In The Green Room And Being Judged Cause Of My Past As A Kid And The  Spurs Knew I Didn’t Have Guidance And Needed A Opportunity. I Remember Tearing My ACL And People Thought It Was Over For Me. Wow I’m Thankful And Grateful! It’s A Reality Now. Thank You God."

Murray, a Seattle native who was one-and-done at the UW following the 2015-16 season, averages a well-rounded 19.6 points, 8.4 rebounds, 9.2 assists and 2.1 steals, collectively numbers not posted over an entire season by anyone. 

The 6-foot-4 guard also has piled up 10 triple-doubles this season, second only to Denver's Nikola Jokic, a fellow All-Star. 

Murray has done all of this as practically a one-man show for a rebuilding Spurs team that is 20-34 and in 12th place in the Western Conference, two spots from qualifying for the postseason play-in tournament.

He's been able to hold his own almost every night and backs down from no one, including James Harden, as shown in this Twitter video.

Murray, 25, played his high school basketball at Seattle's Rainier Beach, which previously supplied Nate Robinson, Jamal Crawford and Doug Christie to the NBA, and then became a Spurs' first-round draft after his lone season with the Huskies. 

UW assistant coach Will Conroy, himself once a Rainier Beach and Garfield High player before playing for the Huskies, sent out his congratulations, tweeting out, "Sooooooo happy for this kid. SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, SHOW THIS KID SOME LOVE ... this made my day ... go dawgs — go seattle ... go HomeTeam ... neighborhood Husky!!!"

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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