Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? and was the 14th overall pick by the Golden State Warriors. "Unfortunately, with the way the NBA goes, you get almost penalized for staying," Murphy said. "They had a lot of high school kids that year who came out [three of the first four selections were high school players Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry, with European Pau Gasol the other]. It was based on potential, and at that time the longer you stayed in college, the further back you kind of fell. "I had to take advantage of the op- portunity to go, I felt the time was right and went for it. I have no regrets. I had a wonderful experience here. It was time for me to go and see what I could do in the NBA." According to Basketball-Reference. com, Murphy made $66 million dur- ing his 12-year NBA career while play- ing 729 games (starting 482), his last in November 2012. He averaged a double-double in points and rebounds in five different seasons. Along with Ellis, Murphy is the lone Notre Dame player recruited since 1978 to average double-figure scoring (10.8 points per game) during his NBA career. EARNING HIS DEGREE After retiring from the NBA and liv- ing in New York City at the time, Mur- phy used 2013 to "train" for admission into Ivy League school Columbia, lo- cated in NYC. He needed to take an entrance exam, so he hired a tutor, bought SAT books and reportedly studied 25 hours a week for a couple of months while tak- ing nearly two-dozen practice exams. Once he was admitted, the competi- tive drive on the hardwood for the now 35-year-old Murphy was trans- ferred into the classroom. "[Studying] was a difficult thing for me to do while playing," he admit- ted. "… I appreciated it so much more going back. My mind was filled with basketball and trying to maximize whatever I could to make it to the next level. When that finished, your mind is more mature and your mind can see things differently." He recently finished his degree re- quirements in sociology, even making the Dean's List while earning a 3.8 grade-point average (4.0 scale) one of his semesters while taking classes in Organizing Innovation, Societal Ad- aptations To Terrorism, Introduction to Islamic Civilization and Spanish. Still single, Murphy is unsure what the future holds, but life is good liv- ing in California's Malibu Beach while also having partaken in a relatively frugal lifestyle despite his high earn- ings. "That was a driving factor for me," Murphy said of his top priority the past two years to earn his college de- gree. "… In the NBA you get a certain mentality. Going back to school puts you in a different kind of mentality. I kind of transitioned out of that. I'm glad I had the experience and went back to school to get a different per- spective." On the basketball court, he did his own schooling of many an opponent. ✦