Baby Boy in the building! NBA All-Star Dejounte Murray of the Atlanta Hawks joins Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes on the All The Smoke podcast.
Dejounte Murray grew up in our home state of Washington, and more specifically the Seattle area. After a stellar high school career at the legendary Rainier Beach program, Murray went on to star at the University of Washington for one season. He was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs with the 29th pick of the 2016 draft. He saw a somewhat slow start to his career playing behind Tony Parker. However, Murray was eventually handed the keys to the starting point guard position. For those from Seattle, Murray has been known as Baby Boy since growing up as a quick and lanky guard with a handle that closely resembled his mentor Jamal Crawford. Thanks to Crawford, Murray was no stranger to playing against NBA-level competition while still in school at Rainier Beach.
In this episode, the trio discusses the intricacies of the NBA, the draft process, and what some players are really like off the court. Dejounte Murray gives his flowers to Kawhi Leonard, the San Antonio Spurs organization, and of course Jamal Crawford.
New Media Platforms Bring A New Perspective To Sports Coverage
Social media was showing a lot of love for the All The Smoke episode featuring Dejounte Murray. Many have called this one of the best episodes to date and a prime example of why “new sports media” is so important. For those that are unfamiliar, “new media” refers to the podcasts and non-traditional media outlets that are run by current and former players.
While many of the TV hosts and game analysis are former players, this “new media” is almost exclusively comprised of players who are hardly removed from the hardwood. They bring a perspective of not only sharing the same life experience of the players they feature but also having shared many of the same coaches, teammates, and adversaries. This leads to discussions that traditional hosts don’t cover. Ultimately, they will never be able to cover it as well as the players who open up in a new way because they enjoy talking amongst truly like-minded individuals. Personally, All The Smoke is one of my favorite podcasts regardless of genre and Barnes and Jackson have etched an amazing platform and content flow.
This is a great look into the perseverance and hustle of Murray. They speak on what it takes to succeed in the NBA, and why basketball is so special in Seattle. Don’t sleep on this!
