{"id":1018306,"date":"2026-08-23T03:03:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T03:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1018306\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T03:03:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T03:03:25","slug":"dejounte-murray-explains-why-he-returned-for-14-games-last-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1018306\/","title":{"rendered":"Dejounte Murray Explains Why He Returned For 14 Games Last Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

It would have been easy for Dejounte Murray<\/a><\/strong> to sit out all of last season while recovering from a torn Achilles tendon, but the Pelicans<\/strong> guard explains in an interview with Cyro Asseo of HoopsHype<\/a> why it was important for him to return to action.<\/p>\n

\"\"More than a year elapsed from the time Murray suffered the injury on January 31, 2025, until his return on February 24 of this year. New Orleans was lingering near the bottom of the West at the time, but even a slim chance of reaching the play-in tournament was enough to motivate Murray to get back on the court.<\/p>\n

He immediately moved back into the starting lineup and put together a decent showing in 14 games, averaging 16.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists in 27.8 minutes per night with .484\/.306\/.867 shooting numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven coming back last year to play 14 games, it was really just like, now, we were 14th in the West, so we really didn\u2019t have anything to play for, but it\u2019s like we could reach 10 to get in the play-in, so it gave me something to play for,\u201d Murray said. \u201cSo that\u2019s my reason for coming back. Or I would have just sat out and got ready for this year. But it was like, nah, I wanted to go. I felt ready, obviously. Preparation is key; preparation is everything. And I worked my tail off to even be in a position to play. So I was just excited to go out to not only show my team and the people that support me, my family, but just anybody that you can fall and get back up \u2026 as long as you got the mental part down pat. It\u2019s not easy, but you can do it. Anything\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The torn Achilles was the second major injury for Murray, who tore his ACL during the 2018 preseason. Comparing them, he considers the rehabilitation process from the Achilles injury to be much more difficult. He describes being unable to do any calf raises two months into recovery and feeling like his career might be over.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd again, it\u2019s all mental, right? That\u2019s just the process,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce you read up on the Achilles and you learn about the injury and why the injury happens and all these different things, it\u2019s like the only thing is to learn and enjoy your process and go through your process. My process was different from a bunch of guys, just like theirs was different from mine. And it\u2019s just like, that\u2019s for sure the hardest one, because I was hopping everywhere; I\u2019m on a scooter, you can\u2019t walk. But at the end of the day, I attacked everything like no other. And I\u2019ll continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the oldest players on the Pelicans\u2019 roster at 29, Murray discusses what it\u2019s like to serve as a mentor to teammates such as Zion Williamson<\/a><\/strong>, Derik Queen<\/a><\/strong> and Jeremiah Fears<\/a><\/strong>. He said it\u2019s important for players not to feel like they\u2019ve \u201cmade it\u201d once they reach the NBA and to keep working to get better.<\/p>\n

Murray, a former All-Star, also addresses the perceived need to rebuild his reputation as one of the top guards in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody should impact how your day goes or dictate what you\u2019re gonna be or anything,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me, it ain\u2019t never about proving nobody wrong. It\u2019s really just proving myself right. So, of course, I\u2019m human. I got hurt; I tore my Achilles. Like, I think it should be celebrated how hard we work to get back on our feet. When I was watching Damian Lillard<\/a><\/strong><\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Tyrese (Haliburton)<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and Jayson Tatum<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s process, as well as mine, it\u2019s like, nah, we\u2019re human. But that\u2019s the thing that comes with being a pro, being in the NBA. It\u2019s like you don\u2019t get looked at as a human. You\u2019re above a human, which is crazy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now it\u2019s really just proving myself right. And like I said, I\u2019m healthy, I\u2019m excited, and I will prove myself right, and the world would get to see a better version of the person you\u2019re talking about. For sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It would have been easy for Dejounte Murray to sit out all of last season while recovering from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1018307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[160296,1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1018306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-dejounte-murray","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117142606612326965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1018307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}