He was dexterous, was good at ball handling, had excellent jumping ability and a perfect shot. Calvin Murphy had everything for a successful basketball career except his height, only 5 ft 9 in. However, this did not prevent him from reaching his basketball dream. Only those who saw Murphy play knew that he was a major offensive player. He could make a jump shot with a flick of the wrist, and his aggressive defense made Calvin a top-notch guard. Read more about how a school basketball player became the Houston Rockets star and about the scandal details that irreversibly affected the athlete’s reputation at i-houston.
Athletic childhood
The future world-class sports star was born on May 9, 1948, in the city of Norwalk (Connecticut). The boy’s mother and his six sisters were baton twirlers. Calvin also took up this sport. In 8th grade, he won the national championship in twirling. Having gained a reputation as a skilled twirler, he participated in major sporting events and the 1964 New York World’s Fair. In 1977 Murphy took first place in the Texas Men’s Twirling Championship.
At the same time, the boy played basketball. He inherited this passion from his mother, Ina, who was a guard on a semi-professional basketball team in North Carolina. The family lived only half an hour from New York. Together with his brother, Calvin took the train to New York’s Madison Square Garden to watch games by professionals. Sitting on the spectator’s bench, he imagined himself on the court. One evening, he saw the American professional football player Oscar Robertson, and on the way home, he promised himself to become a skilled basketball player against all odds.
As a child, the boy already stood out among other players on the court because of his height. However, he never let critics prevent him from pursuing his dreams, on the contrary, it became a stimulus to achieve the best results. While playing basketball for Norwalk High School, he became a three-time state champion and a two-time All-American.
Playing for the university
After high school, Murphy was offered 235 basketball scholarships but chose to study at Niagara University in Lewiston, New York. There, the student joined the men’s basketball team Niagara Purple Eagles and stayed with them from 1967 to 1970.
In 1970, owing to Calvin, his team was allowed to the NCAA tournament. During the 1967–68 season, he was top scorer in 23 of 24 games.
A three-time member of the NCAA Men’s Basketball All-American team, he scored 2,548 points in 77 games (three seasons). 33 points per game were his average figure, thus making him a three-time unanimous champion of America, which is extremely rare for college basketball.
By the end of his sensational collegiate career, Murphy had set almost every record for points at Niagara University. However, NBA scouts were still skeptical of Murphy because of his height. The NBA is a men’s professional basketball league in North America, including the United States and Canada.
Houston Rockets
In 1970, Calvin eventually joined the NBA. Although he was the smallest player in the league, Murphy became part of the All-Rookie Team in 1970–71, along with Bob Lanier, Pete Maravich, Dave Cowens and Jeff Petry.
In particular, the athlete played for the San Diego Rockets, which moved to Houston the following year and was renamed Houston Rockets. He spent 13 years as a member of this team and ended his career in 1983.
In 1978, Calvin set his personal best with 57 points in a 106–104 loss to the New Jersey Nets. That same year, he won the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, the NBA’s annual honor awarded to a player, mentor, or coach for their highest excellence and dedication to the basketball community.
Murphy, along with Alvin Hayes and Moses Malone, led the Rockets to the 1981 NBA Finals. The Rockets lost to the Boston Celtics in the finals. Calvin’s foul shot percentage for the 1980-81 season was the best in NBA history (0.9581). He also made a record by scoring 78 direct free throws during that season. Both the records have since been broken. Moreover, he became the all-time leading shooter until Hakeem Olajuwon surpassed him in 1994.
Calvin was competitive and always did his best. At the same time, he was a team player. He was a diligent guard, but when needed, he selflessly passed the ball to the team member with the better shot. His rapidity and incredible ability to score a basket, as well as his enthusiasm filled every game with great excitement.
In 1993, after a star career in high school, college and the NBA, Murphy received basketball’s highest honor when he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Murphy also had the highest assist number (4,402) in Houston until James Harden beat his record in 2019.
Retirement and sex scandal
After leaving top-class sports, Murphy continued to work with the Houston Rockets, for example, he was the team’s television game analyst.
In 2004, Calvin underwent a trial in Houston. The basketball star was accused of sexually abusing five of his own daughters. For grave crime, Murphy could have been sentenced from 5 years to life in prison and from 2 to 20 years for indecent assault.
It took jurors less than two hours to bring in a verdict of not guilty and cease an eight-month proceeding that sullied the reputation of a favorite local sports hero.
At the end of the month-long trial, the man closed his eyes and looked up while state District Judge Michael McSpadden read over the not guilty verdicts on each of the six items. In a few minutes, a 56-year-old Murphy hugged his lawyers, patting them on the back as tears streamed down his face. The daughters who accused him of sexual abuse were in the back of the courtroom, holding hands and crying quietly. They were confused and refused to comment while leaving the court.
Spending not much time on deliberations, jurors revealed that the daughters’ tearful testimony was unreliable to them. Several years later, Murphy’s daughters told the press that their allegations were true. They had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by their father between the ages of 6 and 16.
It should be mentioned that Calvin is the father of 14 children from 9 women. All 5 daughters who accused Murphy were born out of wedlock, while two daughters born to his ex-wife stood up for him and testified in his favor.
According to witnesses, Murphy repeatedly asked his illegitimate children not to be called “Dad” in public, not to harm his image of a traditional family man. For more than 20 years, the basketball player hid from his wife Vernetta that he had four more families.
Long before the trial, because of the scandal, Murphy lost his job and had tarnished reputation due to his daughters’ accusations and criminal charges. The athlete managed to regain his position as a TV analyst in 2012 after years of attempts to mend a strong relationship with his children.