Ade Murkey remembers everything about his NBA debut. He recalls what music he was blasting en route to the Kings’ Golden 1 Center: Lil Durk and Lil Baby. What his pregame meal consisted of: salmon and rice. The nerves he felt after learning the team had chosen him—a rookie guard who signed a 10-day contract earlier that day because several Sacramento players were in the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols—to wish the home crowd happy holidays before the game.
But most of all, Murkey remembers anxiously looking up at the scoreboard on Dec. 22, 2021, as the Kings trailed the Clippers by double digits late in the fourth quarter, wondering whether the game’s time and score would allow for interim coach Doug Christie to put him in. The 24-year-old had worked his entire life for this chance, his chance. With 1:28 to go and Sacramento down by 15, Murkey heard his name called. He raced off the bench, took the court and, as he puts it, got “a few up-and-downs in.” He never touched the ball, but he enjoyed every second of it.
“That was a memory of a lifetime, for sure,” Murkey says.
