“The holiday season is all about bringing joy to others and spending quality time with your family, friends and loved ones.” Making an appearance recently at a Christmas Toy Giveaway event, Dejounte Murray highlighted the importance of making the most of an occasion like Christmas. The New Orleans Pelicans guard has now created a different life for himself with his wife and children. Despite this, he has also been quite open about dealing with a difficult childhood. Therefore, despite it being Christmas Day, and the player currently sitting on a net worth of millions of dollars, all that Murray has chosen to think about was ‘What could have been life like’ if things were different.

Even before the Christmas Day sun rose over New Orleans, Dejounte Murray took to his official Instagram account to share a story with his 1.4 million followers. The same highlighted a quote from the guard stating, “Sitting and thinking about how we was all together when we was poor…. (broken heart emoji) I got rich and watched this sh*t fall apart from death to the Cells and just got disconnected!!!! Trade all this sh*t just do be my family again!!!! (Black Heart Emoji) Mean it deeply.”

Dejounte Murray’s parents were someone who the player wasn’t willing to call “deadbeats”. However, he did admit that they were someone whose parenting “just wasn’t consistent”. After all, the future NBA player reportedly grew up in the South End neighborhood of Seattle. The reportedly adverse condition of the neighborhood exposed Murray to gun and drug violence quickly. In fact, Murray knew “practically” every drug that was on the streets “by the age of four”.

The 28-year-old remembered how, during his childhood days, his mother would keep going in and out of the penitentiary. However, according to reports, she changed her ways when the police arrested Dejounte at the age of 11.

“A lot of people get to have their parents every single day, coming home, going to school, getting dropped off to practice. I didn’t have that. Where I come from, your life is in danger each and every day,” Murray recalled. The fact that he spent some time in juvenile detention wasn’t something that he shook off easily. In fact, according to reports, the days leading up to Murray’s draft night had him facing rumors of being a “gang member”.

If the incarcerations of himself and his mother weren’t enough, the Murray family has also dealt with some personal tragedies. Back in January 2020, Dejounte revealed that his long-time friend, Heavy Chevy, had passed away. Murray did not highlight the reason behind his friend’s passing. Nevertheless, he paid tribute to him by calling him his “stepdad”, his “older homie”, and someone who had been an important male figure in his life since the age of 12.

Only a year later, Murray again took to social media to reveal that one of his sisters, Tesha, had passed away. Amidst these tragedies, no one can really blame Dejounte Murray for reminiscing about a simpler time. He wouldn’t have as much money as he does now. However, he certainly would be with his close friend and sister. Knowing the former All-Star, he would very well trade the money he has right now. After all, this is not the first time that he has highlighted putting relationships above wealth.

Dejounte Murray once highlighted that money can change family dynamics: “The Reality of Things”

Back in 2018, before the personal tragedies struck, Dejounte Murray highlighted a post on X (then Twitter). It carried a screenshot of a message from the iPhone’s Note app.

“Having money is no joke, you’re bound to lose good a*s relationships you had with family members and close friends because they forget that you work hard for what you have and they don’t care about what responsibilities you have if it doesn’t have anything to do with them. The moment you say “No”, people say you changed, you don’t do for others, and start talking down on your name. What I learn from that is to continue to do what makes me happy, work hard, and help the ones who are trying to change for the better and do the right things.”

Dejounte Murray did not reveal if he wrote the message or if he was just simply sharing it. No matter what, he did endorse it by highlighting it on his feed. Furthermore, he also wrote a caption that read “The Reality Of Things! (100 emoji)”.

Along with feelings of joy and nostalgia, dread about certain things may also make its way on occasions like Christmas Day. However, on this special occasion, one can only hope that the New Orleans Pelicans star ponders on the negative only briefly. The rest of the day, he enjoys the holiday!