It has been a great sight to see the return of Dejounte Murray to an NBA court recently, after the former All-Star guard tore his achilles in January of 2025. He underwent surgery and a long rehab process before finally making his return on Tuesday night, starting and playing almost 25 minutes for the Pelicans in a win over the Warriors.
He was ready to go again on Thursday night and played another solid 25+ minutes. There was certainly some rust, and Murray will sit out on the front end of the team’s back-to-back on Saturday, but overall, he looked good out there.
In his season debut, he had 13 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and a steal on 5-11 shooting, and he followed it up with 17 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds, 4 steals, and a block, including getting to the line for five free throws.
He didn’t completely look like himself out there; he turned it over 11 times in the two games and has hit just 3-11 threes, but in the grand scheme of things, this has been a great week for Murray, the Pelicans, and anyone recovering from a ruptured achilles.
Murray sat out for over a year
While this is obviously promising for Jayson Tatum as he looks to recover from the same injury, it’s important to note that Murray’s injury happened almost 13 months ago, whereas JT just hit the 10-month mark a few days ago.
That extra time and recovery to get one's body ready for consistent NBA competition is a pretty big deal, and three months is a pretty massive difference. Still, every situation is unique, and we all know how many factors have worked in Tatum’s favor since the injury, including the immediacy of the surgery and how hard he has attacked his rehab.
There is plenty of reason to be optimistic about a successful JT return this season, and seeing Murray out there is just the latest one.
Murray’s message to Tatum
The recent run of achilles injuries to star players has been devastating, but if there is a silver lining, it seems that a lot of these guys have formed a bond and a sort of brotherhood, sharing their recoveries with others as inspiration and motivation.
We saw that play out again here as Murray posted a picture of himself in his comeback game on social media, and Tatum was quick to leave a positive comment, “My brotha, overly happy for you.”
Dejounte replied to that comment with, “My brother. We got through this s*** together. Waiting on you.” It’s great to see the camaraderie, and it’s also great to see Murray using the word, got, which seems to suggest that Tatum is more or less, “through this s***” as well. It’s just another positive sign for Tatum, but after he was ruled out for Sunday, we are all, like Murray, just waiting.