Dejounte Murray accused his own New Orleans Pelicans organization of “sabotage” in a series of X posts late Wednesday night, then deleted them shortly after the team’s 145-111 home loss to the Brooklyn Nets.
The outburst came after the account NBACentral pointed out that New Orleans is 1-8 this season when Murray plays and 3-0 when he sits out. Murray missed three games earlier this month for the birth of his son.
“From what’s going on INSIDE, this sounds like someone hit you to say this!! THE ‘SABOTAGE’ IS REAL!!” Murray wrote, before taking the post down.
He went further in a reply to the Pelicans podcast ProPelsTalk, which had posted a clip of Murray throwing a turnover intended for teammate Saddiq Bey. Instead of accepting blame for the bad pass, Murray blamed Bey’s floor spacing and said the whole roster is unhappy behind closed doors.
“Ohhhhh let’s talk about it,” Murray wrote. “When you run post plays, are they supposed to catch on the block or the 3pt line? Let’s hear it Mr social media coach, Gm and President? You have no f—ing clue what we dealing with. Maybe you should ask the whole team individually how they feel on a serious note and then pull rethink a lot of s–t. You’ll be embarrassed to be a fan of this s–t IF YOU KNEW WHY I’m saying scapegoat or sabotage based off what’s going on real talk!!!”
Deleting the posts did not undo the damage of publicly blaming a teammate and the front office. The rant followed New Orleans’ fourth straight loss, dropping the Pelicans to 4-8 on the season.
Two nights earlier, the Golden State Warriors handed New Orleans the worst regular-season loss in franchise history, a 51-point blowout, 138-87.
Against Brooklyn, Murray scored five points on 2-of-6 shooting with four assists and two turnovers in 28 minutes. He has scored in single digits in three of his last four games. Reports have also surfaced that Murray is unhappy with his role and has clashed with head coach Jamahl Mosley, who was hired by New Orleans this past offseason.
After Wednesday’s loss, Pelicans star Zion Williamson called the team’s effort “unacceptable” and said everyone, including Murray, needs to look in the mirror.
