The Dejounte Murray deal with the San Antonio Spurs was generally praised. “A good compromise for a really good player coming off injury,” one Eastern Conference executive said of Murray’s four-year, $64 million extension (reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium).
NBA Rumor: Dejounte Murray Extension
6 rumors in this storyline
More Rumors in this Storyline
RJ Marquez: Popovich on Dejounte Murray’s character off the court, helping others with small tasks around facility and why franchise felt comfortable with extension. “He had the stuff of a leader.” #Spurs #ksatsports #ksatnews #NBA pic.twitter.com/SUgB3rp1FY
Jamal Crawford: Congrats @Dejounte Murray!!!!!!!!!!
Spurs agree to extension with Dejounte Murray
Shams Charania: San Antonio Spurs guard Dejounte Murray has agreed to a four-year, $64M fully guaranteed contract extension, agent Rich Paul tells @The Athletic @Stadium.
Dejounte Murray says he's not worried about contract extension
Murray, selected 29th overall by the Spurs, and Poeltl, drafted ninth overall by Toronto, are seeking their rookie-scale extensions heading into the 2019-2020 season. The deadline is Oct. 21, two days before the Spurs host New York in the season opener. If Murray and Poeltl don’t sign extensions, they would enter the restricted free agent market in July 2020. “My mind is not on that at all,” Murray said after practice Monday. “Obviously, I want to be here for as long as I can, but those are things I can’t control. What I can control is getting better, learning and being a great person, being Dejounte Murray.
September 27, 2021 | 9:36 am EDT Update
Sixers add Shaquille Harrison to training camp roster
Adrian Wojnarowski: Free agent G Shaq Harrison is signing a training camp deal with the 76ers, source tells ESPN.
Towns received treatment at an area hospital, then quarantined at home for the next few weeks, isolated from friends and family. Basketball had been the closest thing in his life to an outlet. Now, by himself, he had no choice but to confront the pain that followed his mother’s sudden death. “I’ve had a lot of situations this year where things were just too much for me,” Towns says. “I just remember [quarantining] in the house, and it was more than just COVID for me. I felt like I was going through a holistic journey.”
A high-calorie diet eventually solved his weight problem. But that night inside Quicken Loans Arena, in the same building with so many people for the first time since he was able to leave his house, anxiety enveloped Towns on the bench. When the first quarter ended he texted his agent: “I can’t be out here anymore. I can’t do this.” He rushed back to the locker room, where Minnesota’s head equipment manager Peter Warden asked if everything was O.K.
“I felt like everything was an open-ended sentence, you know? There was no closure. There was no period at the end,” he says. “I just kept running on and running on and running on, but I never really got to where I needed to go to end a conversation.”
There were days when being around teammates carried him. Basketball felt like it could provide a blip of relief. There were others when he thought about stepping away and giving himself space to mourn. “[My mother] made basketball fun for me my whole entire life,” Towns says. “She made it where I wanted to even do this. So for me, I was like, [There’s] too much on my mind. I’m not, I can’t, nah, I can’t.”
“That money s— don’t mean s— to me,” he says. “Time is the real thing we losing every day. I just really didn’t think I could play the game of basketball the way I want to represent myself in the NBA. I didn’t want to represent myself in a bad way. There’d be a lot of times we’d play a game. Game’s over. And I’m not even in there. I’m doing my own thing. I’m in the bathroom looking at myself, wondering if this is the man that I really think I am. I had 40. I’m still not happy with the man I see in the mirror. I’m still dealing with a lot of s—.”
