THE NBA: 1994-95 PREVIEW : Gym Rat Turns Into Big Cheese : Raised in Basketball Environment, Murray Aims to Make Leap From Cal to Clippers

Lamond Murray, the Clippers’ top draft pick, was dunking before he was out of diapers.

Murray’s father, James, who played basketball at UC Riverside in the early 1970s, used to hold Lamond over his head so that he could dunk.

“When he was 3 years old he wouldn’t play with his Tonka toys, Big Wheels or anything,” James Murray said. “Just a basketball. He used to sleep with the ball and the ball was bigger than him.

“When I played at Riverside, they had a temporary nursery set up in the corner of the gym and the cheerleaders would baby-sit while we practiced and all he ever heard was the thump of the ball.

“After he got potty trained, he went everywhere I went. If I said he couldn’t go with me to play basketball, he’d hide in the trunk (of the car) or the back seat.”

James Murray instilled the spirit of competition in Lamond too, at that early age.

“When we played, I played not to take any hostages,” said James Murray, who had served a two-year hitch in Vietnam before starting college.

“The rules of war stipulate that if you take a hostage, you’re supposed to give him medical care and feed him, but over there you just shot them in the head again because you couldn’t be dragging them through the jungle. And that was my mentality when we played. If he had the ball, he was the enemy and we just played rough.”

Lamond Murray practically lived and slept on the court.

“I put a basketball hoop above the garage and he’d play until he got exhausted,” James Murray said. “Once I found him asleep, leaning up against the ball.”

Lamond Murray’s obsession with basketball has paid off.

The seventh player selected in the NBA draft, the 6-foot-7 forward from California was so highly regarded by the Clippers that they chose not to meet All-Star forward Dominique Wilkins’ price. Wilkins signed with the Boston Celtics.

“We are counting on him to be an integral part of the future of this franchise,” Clipper General Manager Elgin Baylor said. “No one is saying he’s going to come in and turn everything around. He’s not Shaquille O’Neal or Michael Jordan, we all understand that.”

Said Murray, “I think there’ll be a lot of pressure, but I haven’t really felt it yet because I’m not on the floor. But I think I’ll be able to deal with it.”

Whatever his future, Murray has basketball in his genes.

Cousin Tracy, a former UCLA star, plays for the Portland Trail Blazers. Tracy’s younger brother, Cameron, a 6-1 guard, is a freshman at USC.

“We were close until his family moved up to Northern California,” Tracy Murray said. “We’d go play ball on the weekends and stuff. Lamond always had a nice hook shot. He got that from his dad.”

James Murray, 45, and his brother, Robert, 46, were star basketball players at Blair High in Pasadena in 1967.

James, a 6-foot-4 power forward who was an outstanding rebounder and post player, went on to play at Pasadena City College in 1970, after serving his Army hitch, then transferred to UC Riverside.

Invited to open tryout camps by the Seattle SuperSonics and the Portland Trail Blazers, Murray declined because he had a wife and son to support and couldn’t afford to leave his job. He decided he would live through his son’s career.

“My dad was a big influence on me because he played ball in college,” Lamond Murray said. “He taught me a lot about the game, not just about shooting or defense, but about how to think the game, which I think is essential to you doing well out there on the floor.”

Robert Murray, a 6-3 1/2 guard and an outstanding outside shooter, played at Cal Lutheran. Son Tracy, who set a state scoring record at Glendora High before going to UCLA, where he became the Bruins’ fifth leading scorer, inherited his father’s shooting touch.

Tracy and Lamond played together every day last summer in pickup games with other NBA players at UCLA in an attempt to prepare Lamond for the NBA.

“He’s going to do just fine,” Tracy Murray said. “Just let him get adjusted. When he gets adjusted and he’s calm and playing his game where he feels comfortable, you’re going to see the real Lamond.”

And there’s another Murray on the way.

Lamond’s girlfriend, Carmen Allen, is pregnant with their first child and due next week.

However, Murray might not be with Allen for the birth of their son because he’s set to make his NBA debut Friday in Yokohama, Japan, against the Trail Blazers and cousin Tracy. The Clippers, who left today, will return Sunday.

“Japan’s not the best place to be because it’s a long flight back and by the time I get back it’ll probably be over with,” Murray said. “I want to be here for the birth of my first child. It’s very difficult.”

Why doesn’t he skip the games in Japan and stay here?

“I don’t know if I can do that,” Murray said. “For the amount of money they’re paying me ($13.5 million for five years), I don’t know if I can do that.”

Murray and Allen, who plan to get married next summer, have already decided to name their son Maurice, which is Murray’s middle name.

Murray has had trouble catching up with the Clippers after missing the first two weeks of training camp because of a contract dispute. He shot 24% in three exhibition games.

After practicing with the team for two days, he made his debut in last Wednesday’s 101-98 exhibition victory over the Atlanta Hawks. Murray played 12 minutes, missing all six shots he took, including three three-pointers.

He wasn’t much better in an exhibition tournament in Mexico City last weekend, making six of 19 shots in two games.

But Murray’s poor shooting doesn’t alarm him.

“I’m not worried about that at all,” he said. “I’m just getting used to shooting the basketball. My elbow’s a little sore right now. I’ll work through it. I’m not worried about it.”

Clipper Coach Bill Fitch said Murray is a quick learner.

“Lamond Murray has been as good a latecomer as I’ve ever had coaching,” Fitch said. “Walking into a camp as late as he walked in, he’s walked in with very good conditioning and a great attitude. He’s been impressive to me. Now, he’s got to play himself into shape.

“He knows the game. Very few rookies that come in know the game. I’ve had a lot of guys who’ve come out of college who didn’t know the game as well as he does.”

Forward Loy Vaught agreed.

“Lamond has a lot of talent, poise and skill,” Vaught said. “I like the way he shoots the ball from deep. When he has the ball in his hands he takes his time. A lot of rookies rush, panic a little, but he seems very poised. I think he’s going to be great for our team.”

Murray, who is so quiet that he was nicknamed “Mute” by his high school teammates, doesn’t talk much on the court and isn’t very demonstrative.

“That’s the way I learned to play,” he said. “I couldn’t be like the rest of the guys and talk and do all those antics and still concentrate on the game. My way of concentrating is to be quiet and think things out in my head about what I need to do the next play.”

Fitch thinks some may misinterpret Murray’s demeanor.

“A lot of people are going to misread him because his passion for the game (isn’t readily apparent),” Fitch said. “He’s one of those ‘still waters run deep.’ He’s a very within-himself guy.

“But if you spend some time with him, you know he’s got a desire to succeed and win as a member of a team. That’s what I like about him. He’s got a ‘member of a team’ attitude.

“At the college level, he found time to rest. But if he learns to play in his high gear, he’s going to be a very good player. He was so good at the college level he could turn it on and turn it off.”

Murray admits that he occasionally loafed in college.

“Some nights I took it easy and some nights I played very hard,” he said, “but now I’ve got to play very hard every night because the competition’s there.”

Murray didn’t have much competition at Kennedy High in Fremont, where he averaged 30.7 points, 14.6 rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots a game as a senior in 1991, en route to being named the state Division III player of the year.

After signing with California, Murray chafed under former Bear Coach Lou Campanelli, who tried to refine his game. But Murray flourished after Campanelli was replaced by assistant coach Todd Bozeman midway through the 1992-93 season.

He averaged 24.5 points in his last six games as Cal advanced to the Sweet 16. And he outplayed Duke forward Grant Hill, the third player selected in the draft, scoring 28 points and grabbing 10 rebounds as the Golden Bears upset the defending NCAA champions in the second round of the 1993 NCAA tournament.

Murray’s stock rose with NBA scouts last season when he broke the school scoring record set by guard Kevin Johnson, now with the Phoenix Suns.

Murray and All-American point guard Jason Kidd decided to leave school early for the NBA after Wisconsin-Green Bay ousted Cal in the first round of the NCAA tournament last March.

Some maintain that Murray might have trouble playing without Kidd, the No. 2 selection in the draft, to feed him the ball.

Playing without Kidd as a freshman, Murray averaged 13.8 points and shot 47.4%. However, he averaged 19.1 points and shot 51.7% as a sophomore after Kidd’s arrival. The leading scorer in the Pacific 10 Conference last season, Murray averaged 24.3 points and shot 47.6%.

Murray thinks he’ll flourish even without Kidd, now with the Dallas Mavericks.

“Jason, when he did get there, took a lot of pressure off me and helped me a lot with his assists,” Murray said, “but I think I was a pretty good player before he got there, and I think he was a pretty good player before he got to Cal. I think we complemented each other, rather than made each other.”

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The Clippers waived guards Stephen Thompson and Orlando Vega on Monday to reduce their roster to 13 players. The Clippers will decide whether to keep center Matt Fish after they arrive in Yokohama, Japan for Friday night’s season opener against the Portland Trail Blazers.