After his brief NBA career, Kevin Murphy has then become a journeyman. The 47th pick of the Utah Jazz in the 2012 Draft have been practically around the world, with a handful of stints in China, Japan, France, Croatia, and Turkey.
But there’s one place that he has yet to reach: the Philippines.
“That is one of the places I really want to play in,” said the 28-year-old combo guard from Atlanta, whose most recent tour of duty was in Turkey after leaving Croatian ball club Cedevita Zagreb in January of this year.
Now, he has been given that chance.
The 6-foot-5 Murphy has just been called up by the San Miguel Beermen as a possible replacement for the veteran AZ Reid, who has unfortunately been bitten by the injury bug and is currently nursing a sprain in his right ankle.
Murphy arrived in the Philippines Thursday morning at around 6:10 AM, and he did not waste any time as he immediately joined the Beermen’s practice at the Acropolis Clubhouse in Libis, Quezon City.
“And now I got the opportunity,” he said gratefully.
“So I wanna show why I belong here.”
He might have just spent a little around three hours with his new home and his new coaches, but Murphy is glad that he’s picking up the system of head coach Leo Austria and his teammates’ style of play quickly.
‘I feel like I’m learning, picking up the game pretty well. You know, the basketball game is universal, so if you know how to play, you know how to play, so I feel like I’m picking up the plays easily, how we play over here quickly.”
Murphy is coming into a team that is pressed to turn its’ fortunes around in the 2018 Governors’ Cup, as the Beermen are currently in the middle of the team standings with an uncharacteristic 2-2 win-loss record.
He knows that expectations are high. But for Murphy, all that he wants is to help the Beermen rack up wins.
“I’m excited to play for this team. I heard they’re one of the best teams over here, they won a lot of championships. So I just wanna just really bring my game, bring what I can do to this team,” the Tennessee Tech alum said.
“I just wanna win. Basically. That’s all I wanna do.”
