Tracy Murray
Tracy Murray (born Tracy Lamonte Murray) was born on July 25, 1971 in Los Angeles, California. He played in the National Basketball Association for six different NBA franchises.
Initial Draft by San Antonio Spurs
Murray attended Glendora High School in California and went to UCLA. In 98 total games for the UCLA Bruins Tracy averaged 6.4 RPG ("rebounds per game"), 1.5 APG ("assists per game") and 18.3 PPG ("points per game"). He was selected after his junior season of college basketball in the 1992 NBA draft by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round and with the 18th pick overall. The Spurs finished the 1991-92 year with a 47-35 record, which was good enough for second place in the Midwest Division. However, due to injuries they were swept in the first game of the post-season by the Phoenix Suns.
Bucks, Blazers and Rockets
On July 1st 1992 Murray, just seven days after being drafted, was dealt twice in the same day. He was first traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for G/F Dale Ellis and then dealt by the Bucks to the Portland Trail Blazers for F Alaa Abdelnaby. Murray spent two and a half seasons with Portland before being moved to the Houston Rockets on February 14, 1995 with G Clyde Drexler in exchange for F Otis Thorpe, the rights to F 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 than decided to sign a contract with the Washington Bullets (now Washington Wizards) on July 15th 1996.
Washington Bullets
He spent four seasons with the Washington franchise 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 then 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 APG.
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 F 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 C-F Keon Clark and C Mamadou N'diaye for C Kevin Willis, C Aleksandar Radojevic, C Garth Joseph and a 2001 or 2002 second-round draft choice. Murray played in 38 games with the Raptors following the deal. 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 G Kareem Rush for G Lindsey Hunter and the draft rights to F Chris Jeffries on June 26th 2002.
Cousin Lamond Murray
Unfortunately for Tracy on August 25th 2002 the Raptors acquired F Lamond Murray with a future second-round draft pick for C Michael Stewart and a future first-round draft pick. Tracy Murray and Lamond Murray are cousins and if Tracy had not left the Raptors to join the Lakers, it would have been the second time in the franchise history of the Toronto Raptors that two cousins played together. The first such incident was when F-G Vince Carter played with distant cousin F-G Tracy McGrady for two seasons.