In light of “Baby Gronk’s” father doing an interview with The Athletic, there have been ongoing discussions on social media about parenting gone too far. In this instance, it has to do with pushing children beyond their limits and exploiting them for potential gain. And perhaps the best example of that is what Jamal Murray revealed during a recent interview with ESPN’s Malika Andrews.
Now, Murray wasn’t intentionally trying to make this a referendum on his father. That was social media’s doing. Instead, Murray suffered a nasty floor burn in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, but was able to play through having an open wound on his dominant hand.
But Murray made a shocking revelation when he told ESPN’s Malika Andrews that when he was younger, his father would have him do pain tolerance drills. They entailed him balancing cups of hot tea on his quads while holding a squat. He also revealed that growing up, he had a big maple tree in his front yard and was forced to pick up the leaves bare-handed to “strengthen his hands.”
“Little things like that helped me out and built my threshold,” Murray said.
This is a little different from The Karate Kid when Mr. Miyagi has “Danielsan” paint his fence and wax his car to instill muscle memory. In fact, it’s not even close. It’s abusive. (That’s a discussion that’s also come up with “Baby Gronk,” and with criticism of that Athletic piece on him.) And many of those on social media were horrified by Murray’s shocking revelation:
https://twitter.com/Natural_OneDurr/status/1666926855620812801?s=20
https://twitter.com/NBACouchside/status/1666913020549779456?s=20
[Malika Andrews on Twitter]
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.