Kris Murray Is Looking To Make His Own Name

Dwight & Chad talk with rookie, Kris Murray on Media Day. He discusses the rivalry with his brother, growing up in a basketball family, and his decision to spend another year in school at Iowa, 10-2-23.

Episode Transcript

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All right, verbsity you drive withDwight and Shadd Trailblazer media day and joined

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now by one of the newest Trailblazers, Chris Murray. Our first question I
have for you November eighteenth in Sacramento. How much of the family is going
to be there at that game towatch you and your brother go against one
another. Yeah, I think it'llbe most of our family. That's awesome.
I know it's been a long timecoming, but I think they're definitely
excited to watch us play on thesame court together, even it's not with

(00:25):
each other. Yeah. I mean, you play together at Iowa, but
now you get a chance to goagainst each other. And I would imagine
I know you guys love healthy competition, but I think that's awesome to get
a chance to do that. Itis. Yeah, like maybe the best
man win, That's what I'll say. I look back and it looks to
me like you're kind of a latebloomer. Is that fair to say?

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In college it took a little whilebefore you even got playing time. I
was kind of surprised to see that, whether your brother was stealing your playing
time or what was going on there. But how have you been a little
later, you know, coming tothis skill level. Yeah, I'm it
definitely has. Like even in highschool I had I was six foot up

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until my junior year, I hada huge gross spur. Wow. So
yeah, it took me a littlewhile to kind of get used to my
body and just be able to playlike with it. So I think that
definitely took a little while and tooka little fine tuning. And yeah,
I'd say I developed a little bitlater, but I got my opportunity to
shine last year and I think everythingjust kind of came together the right way

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looking back. Are you pretty happythat you made that decision to stay another
year and get a chance to showcaseand improve your draft stock? I am.
Yeah. I kind of wanted totake that time to just kind of
focus on myself and what I needto do to get better and be able
to play at this level, andI think I definitely did that. I
was comfortable going back to Iowa andjust kind of showcasing what I can do

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in front of a lot of people. I knew I'd have a lot of
eyes on me, and I kindof just appreciated that and kind of took
it as a good thing and beingable to show that I can play the
right way and improve my draft stock. Yeah, I'm curious about this too.
I know you love your brother,everybody you know, I mean,
you love your brother, But isit good once in a while to get

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out of his shadow and kind ofget to do your own thing. Yeah,
that's one of the reasons too.I went back, which is kind
of separate Chris from Keegan. Sowe definitely need that. I think we're
both excited to do that, especiallynot living together anymore, we kind of
need our own space. But Iwas definitely excited to go back and just
kind of create a name for myself. Well, isn't that something that your

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dad, who was also an Iowabasketball star, But isn't that something that
your dad told you specifically? Isit because you got a twin brother?
So not only do you guys playbasically the same position, but you got
a twin brother. So but he'slike, hey, you are your own
person in your game? Is yourgame? I mean, that's I heard,
that's the advice he gave you.Yeah, we'd play a little bit
different too, So just being ableto kind of show what I can do

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differently from Keegan last year was definitelya good thing for me and just have
Keygan's and just let key and kindof do what he did an NBA last
room. Just having me do whatI want to do in college last year.
That was big And I definitely tookmy dad's advice. He's he's pretty
good that he's kind of been throughit a little bit. Chris, I've
always heard this thing about twins,you know, where you have this sort

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of telepathic thing between Yeah, doyou have that? What are your brother?
I would say on the court,Yeah, we do. I feel
like we were always kinda like Yinand yang. Like I would especially at
a young age, I would bethe person that would get all the rebounds
and kick it back to Keygan.But we'd always just kind of read each
other off the court and I thinkon the court, and it'd be it'd

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be pretty easy basketball. So,yeah, we don't have that thing where
if like you pinch me he feelsthat anything like that. Yeah, yeah,
no, but like our intuition ispretty syncd up. Did you ever
play that deal with dates? Ialways heard of twins doing that where you
know you're dating somebody, but thenhe slips in some night, you know,

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you know how you fool people?Did you ever do that? No,
we didn't. It was actually kindof it was kind of hard to
tell us apart, but like ourpersonalities are a little different, so they'd
be able to tell kind of who'sKeegan and w here's Chris. Yeah,
now we used to do that inelementary school, Mike and Mark. We
all loved him, and then theywere twin brothers, and so every once
in a while I be like,hey, why don't you come over to

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my homeroom and they's they'd switched becausewe wanted to hang out with the other
one man. Yeah, we neverdid any of those little twin tricks that
you do in school or anything likethat. Keegan wouldn't we've gone for it,
I don't think. And we're talkingwith Chris Murray, I newest remember
the Portland Trailblader this year getting readyfor his first season. How excited are
you about the opportunity here in Portland. I'm excited. It's definitely a really

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good fit for me, just basketballwise, lifestyle wise, and yeah,
I couldn't ask for a better placeto live and work on my game.
I'm just excited for the excited forthe future, excited for to get the
season start. I think, sorry, go ahead, no, you you're
talking? Oh yeah, I thinkI think we really have a we have
a fun team. This that's gonnabe fun to watch and just watch grow
throughout the season. Yeah, youtalked about Portland. Do you like it

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here? You've spent some time now, do you like it here? I
do? Yeah? What do youlike about it that the coast is an
hour and a half away? I'vebeen there a few times. Just enjoined
nature when I was younger. Weused to go to Minnesota a lot,
just go camping, fishing, justbeing being around nature. I think that's

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one of the things I like aboutit. It kind of reminds me of
there. So yeah, I thinkI have a dog too, so we
had just take her on the inthe ocean, in nature, on walks
around kind of dog. I havea red Gold Retriever. Oh that's awesome.
Yeah, this is a dog town, it is. Yeah, take
your dog anyway. Yeah, it'svery dog friendly, like no one really
cares. The other great thing aboutthe Northwest is we have access to terrific

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golf courses. From my understanding,Uh, you do like to get out
and play have you have you brokeeighty yet? I have not? Well,
I have, but I wouldn't whatthe course I did that it wasn't.
I wouldn't say it's it's pretty easyto break eighty. But I've I've
shot eighty a couple of times inhigh school, but I haven't broken eighty.
Here next next summer. That's kindof my goal. And how nice

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is it to have something to doto get away from the basketball court,
you know, because golf is greatbecause you it's quiet, it's peaceful,
and it's very mentally challenging. Yeah, it's good for my mind. It's
kind of what I realized. Itgives me a piece for whatever is.
If I play nine it's two hours. If I play eighteen holes, it's
four five hours. So just giveme, gives me a piece of mind.
I'm just someone to take my mindoff of basketball at some points and

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just gives me a little bit ofa break that you always need. Chris,
we're asking a lot of people todaywhat it's like to play with school,
and I'm curious what you think,whether you've ever played with anybody quite
like him, what he brings andwhat he's going to bring to this team.
Yeah, his his quickness is oneof his quickness and the strength is
one of his best attributes. Butone thing that I've seen throughout the last

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couple of months is just how he'sprogressed in thinking the game. And he's
not a big mistake guy at all, really really good assist guy, finding
the right guy that's open, makingthe right decisions off of screens to the
rim. But playing with him,I mean, he gets me a lot
of open shots just because of howmany people he draws, and I think

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that's a real special thing about himthat he can make decisions out of those
real quickly. So, yeah,you're gonna see him just play really well
this year and obviously has a rookieyou're gonna grow throughout the year, and
I think where he's at now,he's probably exceeded expectations. But I'm really
excited to watch him. Well,what is coach Billops communicating in terms of
style of play and what do youexpect? Are we looking at pace?

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What about offense and defense? Whatdo you expect? Yeah, I mean
offensively, it's just just just tohave fun. That's kind of what we've
always been saying. Play with pace. That's kind of just run up and
down the court. We got alot of young guys, a lot of
people who can play that way.So yeah, just the temple is gonna
be high and defensively, just helpthe helper, trust your teammates and having

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your help, and I think whenthat all comes together, we're gonna be
really fun to watch, really entertaining. I know Keegan has given you some
advice on what to do and thanksto look out for and whatever. So
far. What's the best bit ofadvice you've gotten from brother? Yeah,
especially last year as a rookie,he kind of went through slumps early in
the season, whether it's in practiceor in games, and just kind of

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how he worked through him. Hedidn't change his day to day. He
stayed consistent, stay in his routine, and I think those things have helped
me just kind of progress throughout theoff season. Just stay in the same
routine every single day, make sureyou're getting your work in. Those things
have just kind of helped me.I think that's kind of the biggest thing
that they told me. It's notanything huge, it's just just a little

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things you do in practice, littlethings in games that, uh, you
may not realize that actually help youa lot. What I mean from seeing
this team from Afar. What's yourtake on some of the vested here,
like Aunt or Grant or some ofsome of those guys who have been here
and entrenched and what you see intheir game. Yeah, they've been really
helpful. I was the Aunts.He's a guy who can get you a

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bucket, but he's really played wellin defensive end, especially in this offseason.
And Jeremy's kind of a guy who'swho's all together. He has kind
of everything you want and a basketballplayer. But they've been really good to
us, whether it's be hanging outoutside of the outside of basketball, keeping
us all together. Uh, they'vedone a really good job of that so
far. Now, your father,I'm wondering how his role has changed.

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I know he was involved heavily withyou and your brother when you guys were
younger. But you know, Ilike with my dad, my my relationship
with his change, we become morefriends. What's the role been like for
your dad now? Is he kindof stepping back? Is he still involved
in the game or more of aspectator? How would you describe it.
Yeah, he's definitely more of respectatornow. I was kind of the one
who kind of told him that hedidn't need a coach us anymore. How

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do you receive that message? Hetook it well, actually, but I
was the one to say it.But now he's hands off. Now,
he is that we're in really goodhands and you can see how we've progressed
and gotten better, and he's justenjoyed as a dad now and I think
he loves it. Well. We'reexcited to see you play, love your
story, love your family, andcongrats on being here in Portland with the

(10:13):
Trail Blazers. Thank you. Iappreciate it.