Kris Murray, older than Keegan Murray by a handful of minutes, will have waited one more year than his twin to hear his name called by commissioner Adam Silver in the NBA draft.
When that moment arrives June 22, Kris wouldn’t mind joining his longest-tenured teammate on the Kings.
“I definitely do want to play with Keegan, whether it’s this year, whether it’s three years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now,” Kris Murray said in an exclusive interview with NBC Sports California. “Getting an opportunity to play with him at any capacity would be really special.
“Something that we’ve always dreamed of, just being able to play in the NBA together. I welcome any opportunity to share the court with him again.”
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The Kings have a chance to team up the brothers if Kris -- projected to be a mid-to-late first-round pick in the 2023 NBA Draft -- slips to Sacramento at No. 24 overall.
Reigning NBA Executive of the Year Monte McNair took a chance last year on the younger-by-a-hair Keegan with the No. 4 overall pick when other prospects thought to have higher NBA ceilings still were on the board.
Keegan proved McNair right. He made 19 more 3-pointers than any other rookie in NBA history and started all seven of the Kings’ first playoff games since 2006.
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Selecting Kris not only would address a position of need -- a 6-foot-8 forward with playmaking abilities as a shot-maker and slasher -- but also would guarantee the Kings are adding a rookie who seamlessly fits in coach Mike Brown’s winning culture.
Kris confirmed to NBC Sports California that he has kept in contact with the Kings’ front office throughout the pre-draft process. Sacramento's brass also has reached out to Keegan to ask further questions about his brother.
“We have great chemistry, obviously we’ve played together for 15 to 20 years,” Kris told NBC Sports California. “We play really well together even though our games are a little bit different.”
The Murray twins flew under the recruiting radar together throughout their tenure at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They graduated in 2019 with just one Division I scholarship offer, from Western Illinois, in the mailbox. Even after spending one postgraduate year at DME Academy in Daytona Beach, Fla., both brothers had just three stars on their recruiting profiles.
They signed on to join coach Fran McCaffrey with the hometown Iowa Hawkeyes, where their father Kenyon scored over 1,200 points over four seasons in the 1990s.
Keegan found a bench role as a freshman in 2020-21 and surged up draft boards the next year by averaging 23.5 points and 8.7 rebounds on an incredibly efficient 55.4 percent from the field and 39.8 percent from 3-point range.
The Kings scooped Keegan up at No. 4 overall in the 2022 draft, envisioning he'd spread the floor for stars De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis. It looked like Sacramento, a franchise with a shaky-at-best track record in the draft, made the right pick from the minute he donned Kings purple in summer league.
"I feel like he fit in like a glove with them," Kris said. "They have really good leaders on the team, really good veterans. [Playing for] Coach Brown was great situation for him to go into, with those guys and a lot of momentum going into the season. ... The kind of culture [Brown] brought to Sacramento, from what Keeg told me, was perfect for the guys in the room to get them all connected and be able to make the run that they did."
While Keegan learned lessons throughout his rookie campaign, Kris stayed back in Iowa City for another collegiate season to boost his draft stock with expectations he'd fill the void of his twin brother, the highest-drafted player in Hawkeyes program history.
He did so admirably, enjoying a breakout junior campaign with averages of 20.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game to go along with a 47.6 field-goal percentage and 33.5 3-point percentage.
Kris watched Keegan from afar, and vice versa. In April, the incoming NBA rookie finally had a chance to attend one of Keegan's games in Sacramento -- Game 1 of Kings' first-round playoff series against the defending-champion Golden State Warriors.
The Kings, hosting their first playoff game in 17 years, won by three points. Keegan only scored two points that night, but Kris took videos of the "MUR-RAY" chants at Golden 1 Center in pregame introductions and after he scored a bucket. Kris crowned Golden 1 Center that night as the loudest arena he has ever heard.
"Sacramento is perfect for [Keegan]," Kris told NBC Sports California. "It’s not too big, not a lot of distractions or anything. When you’re there, you can just focus on work. For him, his personality, his demeanor -- it's the perfect city for him. He knew that going into it, just being able to go up there before the draft and get to know everyone, get accustomed to the city and facilities and all that, it was perfect.
"I think the fans received him really well, probably the best I’ve ever seen out of a rookie all season. They definitely got a special thing going on over there, and I think Keegan is going to be a big part of it."
Keegan will be a main contributor of the Kings' plans to disrupt the Western Conference playoffs for years to come. But could his brother, Kris, be a part of that equation and join the likes of Brook and Robin Lopez, and Marcus and Markieff Morris as twin brothers to play on the same NBA team?
No matter what happens June 22, Keegan, after a historic rookie season, will be at Kris' draft party cheering on the next chapter of his most familiar teammate's career on the court.
