Tracy Murray

Infobox NBA Player
name = Tracy Murray
nickname =


height_ft = 6
height_in = 7
weight_lb = 225
position = Small forward
birth_date = birth date and age|1971|7|25
birth_place = Los Angeles, California
highschool = Glendora
college = UCLA
nationality = American
draft = 18th overall
draft_team = San Antonio Spurs
draft_year = 1992
career_start = 1992
career_end = 2007
former_teams = Portland Trail Blazers (1992–1994, 2003–2004)
Houston Rockets (1995)
Toronto Raptors (1995–1996, 2001–2002)
Washington Wizards (1996–2000)
Denver Nuggets (2000)
Los Angeles Lakers (2002–2003)
Panathinaikos Athens (2004–2005)
PAOK BC (2005–2006)
Chalon (2006–2007)
awards =

Tracy Lamonte Murray (born July 25 1971 in Los Angeles, California) is a retired American professional basketball player who played for six different NBA franchises and two Greek clubs, with a final stint in France.

High school and college career

Murray played competitively at Glendora High School in California and played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins. In 98 total games for UCLA Murray averaged 18.3 PPG 6.4 RPG, and 1.5 APG. After his junior season of college, Murray forsook his senior year and declared early for the 1992 NBA Draft.

Spurs, Bucks, Blazers and Rockets

Murray was selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 1992 NBA Draft with the 18th overall selection. Just seven days after being drafted, on July 1, 1992 Murray was dealt twice in the same day. He was first traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for guard/forward Dale Ellis and then dealt by the Bucks to the Portland Trail Blazers for forward Alaa Abdelnaby. Murray spent two-and-a-half seasons with Portland before being dealt to the Houston Rockets on February 14, 1995 with guard Clyde Drexler in exchange for forward Otis Thorpe, the rights to Argentinian forward Marcelo Nicola and a 1995 first-round draft choice.

Tracy Murray played in just 25 games for the Rockets where he averaged 3.5 PPG and combined with his 5.9 PPG average in the 29 games he played as a Trail Blazer before the deal finished the campaign with a total PPG average of 4.8. On November 1, 1995 he signed a contract with the expansion Toronto Raptors and played the best NBA season of his career averaging 16.2 PPG, 1.6 APG and 4.3 RPG. Murray then decided to sign a contract with the Washington Bullets (now Washington Wizards) on July 15, 1996.

Washington Wizards

He spent four seasons with the Washington Wizards and in his first season with the Bullets, qualified for the post-season. It was the first time he got to participate in the playoffs since his second year in the league. Tracy saw action in three playoff games where he posted numbers of 18.3 PPG, 0.7 APG and 3.0 RPG. Those numbers were far better than the ones he had when he played in his first playoff series in 1993-94 with Portland where in 2 games played he averaged 3.0 PPG, 0.5 APG, and 1.5 RPG. He most notably scored 50 points against the Golden State Warriors on February 10, 1998. Only six other Washington players have scored 50 or more points in a game, including Michael Jordan and Gilbert Arenas who are the only players to have since accomplished the feat.

Nuggets, Raptors and Lakers

After his tenure with Washington concluded he joined the Denver Nuggets through a transaction which had him going from the Wizards to Denver for forward Popeye Jones and a future second-round draft choice on September 25th 2000. After appearing in 13 games with the Nuggets he was dealt on January 12, 2001 to the Raptors with center/forward Keon Clark and center Mamadou N'diaye for centers Kevin Willis, Aleksandar Radojevic, Garth Joseph and a 2001 or 2002 second-round draft choice. Murray played in 38 games with the Raptors following the deal. That season the Raptors qualified for the NBA playoffs and Murray participated in 2 games for his team. He averaged 1.0 PPG and had 1 steal in 2.5 MPG.

In the next year Tracy played in 40 games for Toronto but after the season Murray was dealt again, this time to the Los Angeles Lakers along with the draft rights to guard Kareem Rush for guard Lindsey Hunter and the draft rights to forward Chris Jefferies on June 26, 2002.

Back with the Blazers

After playing one season at the Staples Center for the Los Angeles Lakers he signed with the Portland Trail Blazers on September 15, 2003 and played his last 7 games of his NBA career with the same team for whom he played the first game of his NBA career.

In those 7 NBA contests Murray averaged in 5.0 MPG, 0.1 APG, 1.1 PPG and 0.7 RPG.

Then on October 4, 2004 he signed as a free agent with the New York Knicks, where he hoped he could continue playing in the National Basketball Association. However, on October 27, 2004 he was waived by New York and has not seen game action in the NBA since.

Panathinaikos Athens, PAOK Salonica, Chalon Sur-Saone

In 2004 he signed with former European Champions Panathinaikos Athens BC. He played there for one season and then he was transferred to PAOK Thessaloniki BC where he played for another year. He left PAOK in January 2006. He retired from the NBA in 2004, proceeding to play the 2004-05 season in Greece with Panathinaikos. He did not see much action, and was then cut when the team's starting center got sick, and they needed to make room to sign a replacement. He then played the following season with PAOK also of Greece. He also runs a basketball camp at Glendora High School.

The year 2006 was supposed to be his final and 14th of professional basketball. "I have a (22-month-old) son of my own and it's time to concentrate on him and my family," said Murray. "For the last 14 years, I haven't been able to spend time with them. My parents spend the whole year preparing for one week ...Fourteen years is a long time; it was a good run. We all sat down and talked about it and decided this was the last year. It takes a lot out of me. None of us are getting any younger. It's time to do some family stuff." [ [http://www.bruinbasketballreport.com/2006/07/giving_back_one.html Giving Back One Last Time] ]

Murray, now that his professional playing career was done, expressed an interest in coaching at the collegiate level. [http://www.bruinbasketballreport.com/2006/09/former_bruin_tr.html Former Bruin Tracy Murray Prepares For Next Move] ]

Personal life

Tracy Murray is the cousin of former Los Angeles Clippers small forward Lamond Murray and cousin of former New York Knicks shooting guard Allan Houston.

Notes

External links

*NBA-profile
*basketball-reference