San Antonio Spurs: Dejounte Murray discusses his upbringing, the young core and more

During a recent interview, San Antonio Spurs point guard Dejounte Murray opened up about his humble beginnings and the team’s budding young core.

Starting point guard Dejounte Murray is pegged as the leader of the San Antonio Spurs young core. He’s the oldest of the essential players who qualify for that group and has spent the past four seasons embracing the team’s culture both on and off the court. Now that he’s got some time on his hands, the fan-favorite spoke with lauded reporter Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports on his podcast, “Posted Up with Chris Haynes.”

During the conversation, Dejounte opened up about a handful of subjects ranging from his personal life and humble beginnings to the future of the Spurs’ young core. Throughout the conversation, it becomes increasingly clear that the humble, hard-working player that Spurs fans love holds up to his reputation off the court.

But before we get into the basketball side of things, Dejounte shared his perspective on social justice and racial inequality in the U.S.

America’s racial awakening is nothing new to Dejounte Murray.

They weren’t the first to make comments about the situation at hand, but the San Antonio Spurs organization has made it clear where they stand on the Black Lives Matter movement and the racial injustice against Black people in this country. Between DeMar DeRozan’s leadership role in protests, Lonnie Walker IV cleaning up after protesters, and Gregg Popovich using his platform to educate his community, San Antonio has been active in the fight for racial justice.

Though we haven’t heard much from Dejounte on the matter up to this point, he used his voice during the conversation with Haynes.

Murray has been fed up with the racial injustices in this country for years, noting conversations about the plight of Black people in America with his 107-year-old Aunt from his childhood. He was disgusted by the gruesome murder of Ahmaud Arbury and became even more socially conscious when teenager Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012.

Dejounte even noted some of his personal experiences with police brutality:

“I know crooked cops from where I am from that killed themselves because they were so crooked and taking stuff from us, beating up on us and they got exposed. Now, it’s like you about to go to jail and be on the front lines where all these dudes you used to rob and they killed themselves.”

Former Spurs wing Stephen Jackson isn’t necessarily on great terms with the Spurs or their fanbase, but he’s been an incredible voice for the pressed since his friend, George Floyd, was murdered at the hands of Minneapolis police. Dejounte showed great appreciation for what Jax has been doing to spread awareness and stand up to police brutality.

I’ll leave you with this statement by Murray that eloquently sums up the issue at hand:

“I don’t understand how you can hate somebody with color. We bleed the same.”