MANILA – San Miguel Beermen has tapped former NBA player Kevin Murphy as its new reinforcement in the ongoing 2018 PBA Governors’ Cup replacing the injured Arizona Reid.
Beermen head coach Leovino Austria said they were forced to replace Reid, a two-time PBA Best Import of the Conference awardee, with the latter sustaining an ankle injury.
“Si Arizona kasi ay nagli-limp. In case something wrong mangyari sa amin ay may import kami,” Austria said. “Si Murphy magpa-pratice pa naman sa amin. Titignan natin kung deserving siya.”
Murphy, for his part, said that he felt at home in his first practice with the Beermen on Thursday and was willing to prove to Austria that he deservds to lock in as the team’s import.
“This is one of the places I really wanna play in. And now I got the opportunity so I want to show why I belong here,” Murphy said. “I feel like I’m learning, picking up the game pretty well.”
“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 really bring my game, bring what I can do to this team,” he added.
The 28-year-old Atlanta, Georgia native Murphy was a second-round pick by the Utah Jazz in the 2012 NBA draft and sparingly played with the team. He was then traded to Golden State Warriors but was unable to play with the team.
A product of Tennessee Tech, Murphy had his best years while in the NBA D-League, where he made the Mythical First Team during its 2014 season while suiting up for the Idaho Stampede. He also played as import in France, China, Japan, and Croatia./PN
