What We Learned From Keegan Murray’s Reddit AMA
Jul 12, 2022, 2:42 PM | Updated: 4:20 pm
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The first weekend of the 2022 NBA 2K23 Summer League has officially wrapped up and so far Keegan Murray has impressed in Las Vegas. Averaging 21.5 points and six rebounds through two games, the former Iowa Hawkeye has justified the Kings’ selecting him with the fourth overall pick in the draft last month.
In between hitting clutch threes to send games to overtime and taking time to relax, Murray jumped on Reddit Tuesday to conduct an AMA, also known as an Ask Me Anything, allowing Kings fans the opportunity to ask their new forward questions over various topics.
Here are a few of the questions he responded to:
Q: Was there a specific game or moment in college when you began to think that you realistically could be drafted into the NBA?
A: Yea it was one of our nonconference games. I had 27 points, 21 rebounds and I played 40 minutes that game. I feel like that game elevated my confidence a lot and it was going into the Big 10 season and that season I was able to keep my scoring averages up and we won a lot of games and at that point I knew I had a good chance of being a professional basketball player after that season.
Q: Hey Keegan amazing performance at the summer league so far. When you were younger, which player did you idolize, and which player did you try to model you’re game offensively and defensively?
A: I’ve always been a LeBron fan, so I always liked watching him growing up. I didn’t idolize anyone specific, but you see guys make it to the NBA solely off their defensive mindset and also offensively, there are great on both sides of ball. So it’s interesting to see how they made it and how they stuck around the league.
Q: What’s the most memorable W in your basketball career, and what’s the most memorable L? Could be a particular game or a play or a moment.
A: Most memorable W, we played Indiana in the Big 10 semifinals of the tournament this year. We’re down nine with like 3 minutes left and ended up coming back. Our point guard hit a bank shot at the buzzer to win and send us to the championship game and we ended up winning the championship. So that was a really fun game. Worst L? I’d probably say, we lost to Iowa State by like 20 this year. That was just a rough game for everyone on our team. It sucked that it was against our rival too.
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Q: Beyond the typical advice of working hard, what is some of your best advice to making the NBA? What do you think are the most important things to focus on in high school?
A: I would say not worrying about what other people say or if the cameras are on your or not. I wasn’t ranked in high school and there were guys in my high school conference I thought I was better than but they were getting the Division I offers and I wasn’t. I just kept my head down and worked. I didn’t know where I was going to school until late my senior year but I just kept my head down and worked and knew something good was going to happen.
Q: What kind of mental preparation do you walk through pregame? Rituals, habits, meditation, visualization, etc?
A: I have a mental health coach and one of things he told me to do was watch good highlight film of yourself before the game. Because usually the coaches film breakdown is usually what you do wrong or how you can improve. So just being able to visualize seeing myself do good before a game usually helps a lot.
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Q: Do you play video games and if so what’s your favorite?
A: I play 2k a lot, pretty much online with friends or against friends. I play UFC — I’m a big UFC guy. I play PGA Tour. I’m not into shooters too much, just the sport ones.
Q: My family started calling you Keegs, so I started thinking what nicknames do you have?
A: In college I was called Kee, Keeg and Keegs. Any of those three work. We’ve got Keon [Ellis] on our team and everyone calls him Kee more than anything so Keeg or Keegs.
Q: I feel like media has not given you love like they have other top prospects in this year’s draft, do you feel the same, and how much motivation does that give you going into the rookie year?
A: I’ve been overlook my whole life so this is really nothing new to me. It just gives me more motivation to be successful at this level.
To view the full AMA on Reddit, click here.
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