Tracy Murray facts for kids
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | July 25, 1971 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
|||||||||||||
| High school | Glendora (Glendora, California) | |||||||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) | |||||||||||||
| Listed weight | 230 lb (104 kg) | |||||||||||||
| Career information | ||||||||||||||
| College | UCLA (1989–1992) | |||||||||||||
| NBA Draft | 1992 / Round: 1 / Pick: 18th overall | |||||||||||||
| Selected by the San Antonio Spurs | ||||||||||||||
| Pro career | 1992–2007 | |||||||||||||
| Coaching career | 2007–2016 | |||||||||||||
| Career history | ||||||||||||||
| As player: | ||||||||||||||
| 1992–1995 | Portland Trail Blazers | |||||||||||||
| 1995 | Houston Rockets | |||||||||||||
| 1995–1996 | Toronto Raptors | |||||||||||||
| 1996–2000 | Washington Bullets / Wizards | |||||||||||||
| 2000–2001 | Denver Nuggets | |||||||||||||
| 2001–2002 | Toronto Raptors | |||||||||||||
| 2002–2003 | Los Angeles Lakers | |||||||||||||
| 2003 | Portland Trail Blazers | |||||||||||||
| 2004–2005 | Panathinaikos | |||||||||||||
| 2005–2006 | P.A.O.K. | |||||||||||||
| 2006–2007 | Élan Chalon | |||||||||||||
| As coach: | ||||||||||||||
| 2007–2009 | Bakersfield Jam (assistant) | |||||||||||||
| 2011 | Tulsa Shock (assistant) | |||||||||||||
| 2015 | Los Angeles Lakers (assistant) | |||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| Career NBA statistics | ||||||||||||||
| Points | 5,943 (9.0 ppg) | |||||||||||||
| Rebounds | 1,649 (2.5 rpg) | |||||||||||||
| Assists | 508 (0.8 apg) | |||||||||||||
|
Medals
|
||||||||||||||
Tracy Lamont Murray (born July 25, 1971) is a former American professional basketball player. He now works as an analyst for the UCLA Sports Network, covering all of the UCLA Bruins' basketball games. Tracy also appears as a part-time analyst on the Slam Dunk Show on ABC7 Los Angeles. He used to be an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA) during the 2015–16 NBA season.
Contents
Early Life and High School Star
Tracy Murray grew up in Glendora, California. He played basketball at Glendora High School. In his senior year, he was the top scorer in the nation, averaging an amazing 44.3 points per game! He scored 3,053 points in high school, which was the highest total ever in California at that time for three years of play. Tracy missed his first year of high school due to an injury. He was chosen to play in the 1989 McDonald's All-American Boys Game, which features the best high school players in the country.
College Basketball Career
After high school, Murray played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins. In 98 games at UCLA, he averaged 18.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game. He was named to the Pac-10 all-conference team twice, showing he was one of the best players in his college league.
In his junior year, he averaged 21.4 points and 7.0 rebounds. He also led the Pac-10 in three-point shooting, making 50% of his shots from beyond the arc. His great play helped lead his team to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament. After this successful junior season, Murray decided to enter the 1992 NBA draft. When he left UCLA, he was the 5th highest scorer in the Bruins' history. In 2021, Tracy Murray was honored by being inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame.
Professional Basketball Journey
Starting in the NBA: Spurs, Bucks, and Blazers
Tracy Murray was picked by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 1992 NBA draft. He was the 18th player chosen overall. Just seven days after being drafted, on July 1, 1992, Murray was traded twice in one day! First, he went to the Milwaukee Bucks, and then the Bucks traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers.
During the 1993–94 season, Tracy led the entire NBA in three-point shooting, making an impressive 45.9% of his shots. He played for Portland for two and a half seasons. Then, on February 14, 1995, he was traded to the Houston Rockets. This trade involved him and superstar Clyde Drexler moving to Houston.
Rockets and Raptors
Tracy Murray played only 25 games for the Houston Rockets. He then signed with the new team, the Toronto Raptors, on November 1, 1995. This was a great move for him! He had the best NBA season of his career with the Raptors, averaging 16.2 points, 1.6 assists, and 4.3 rebounds per game. After this successful season, Murray decided to sign a contract with the Washington Bullets on July 15, 1996. The Bullets are now known as the Washington Wizards.
Playing for the Washington Wizards
Tracy spent four seasons with the Washington Wizards. In his first season with the team, they made it to the playoffs. This was only the second time in his career that he had played in the NBA playoffs. In those three playoff games, he played very well, averaging 18.3 points, 0.7 assists, and 3.0 rebounds per game. These numbers were much better than his first playoff appearance with Portland.
A highlight of his time with the Wizards was when he scored an amazing 50 points against the Golden State Warriors on February 10, 1998. Only seven other Washington players have ever scored 50 or more points in a single game. Some famous players who have done this include Michael Jordan, Bradley Beal, and Gilbert Arenas.
Time with the Nuggets, Raptors, and Lakers
After his time with Washington, Tracy joined the Denver Nuggets on September 25, 2000. He played 13 games with the Nuggets before being traded again on January 12, 2001, back to the Toronto Raptors. He played 38 more games with the Raptors that season. The Raptors made the NBA playoffs, and Tracy played in two games.
The next year, Tracy played 40 games for Toronto. After that season, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers on June 26, 2002. He played one season for the Lakers at the Staples Center.
Back to the Trail Blazers and European Basketball
After his season with the Lakers, Tracy signed with the Portland Trail Blazers on September 15, 2003. He played his last seven NBA games with the same team he started his NBA career with. In these final NBA games, he averaged 1.1 points and 0.7 rebounds per game.
On October 4, 2004, he signed with the New York Knicks, hoping to continue his NBA career. However, he was released by New York on October 27, 2004, and did not play in the NBA again.
After leaving the NBA, Tracy Murray played basketball in Europe. In 2004, he signed with the former European Champions Panathinaikos in Greece. He played there for one season. Then, he moved to P.A.O.K. BC, also in Greece, for another year. He left P.A.O.K. in January 2006. His final season of professional basketball was 2006–07, when he played for Élan Chalon in France.
Tracy decided to retire from professional basketball to spend more time with his family. He said, "I have a (22-month-old) son of my own and it's time to concentrate on him and my family." He felt it was time to focus on family after 14 years of playing basketball.
Coaching Career
After his playing career, Tracy Murray became interested in coaching. He worked for three years (2007–2009) as an assistant coach and player mentor for the Bakersfield Jam in the NBA Development League. He also spent one year (2011) as an assistant coach for the Tulsa Shock in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
On October 15, 2015, the Los Angeles Lakers hired Murray as an assistant coach and shooting coach. The head coach, Byron Scott, said that Tracy Murray was "one of the purest shooters I’ve ever seen."
Personal Life
Tracy Murray grew up in Glendora, California, with his brother Cameron. Cameron also played college basketball at USC and the University of Louisville. He even played professionally in the CBA and had tryouts with NBA teams. Tracy and Cameron are first cousins with former NBA players Lamond Murray and Allan Houston.
Tracy Murray now helps with his brother's Prodigy Athletic Institute Program. This is an AAU program in California that coaches young people to be good student-athletes. He also ran a basketball camp at Glendora High School for 15 years.
After his playing career ended, Tracy went back to UCLA to finish his degree in history. He is also a big fan of wrestling and is good friends with famous WWE Hall of Famers like Rikishi, the Godfather, and The Undertaker.
