There has been a lot of talk about Eastern Michigan University’s head basketball coach Rob Murphy within the past two weeks. Murphy was previously an assistant coach for Syracuse University for seven years and from there accepted a position at EMU to take on a more prominent role leading the Eagles.
Last season he was named the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Eagles to their first division title during his first season as the head coach with a 14-18 (9-7) record.
Murphy was recently offered a job with the Orlando Magic, and there were many speculations and rumors as to whether or not Murphy would pursue that position. There would have been a $210,000 buyout in order for him to break his contract and venture into a new realm of his coaching career, and while many people thought that taking the new position would have been highly beneficial to Murphy, he thought otherwise.
“I love what I’m doing. The timing wasn’t right,” Murphy said.
“I’m a loyal person, and there’s no way I would leave my position knowing the negative impact and the effect it would have on many lives.”
Murphy’s loyalty to EMU athletics shows that he felt it would’ve been an act of betrayal to leave the athletes he just recruited, who have not had the honor of playing for him yet, and also the coaches that assist him in creating a better basketball program.
“Five staff members that I hired one year ago would have been jobless,” Murphy said.
He understood that leaving such a prominent position would directly affect the rest of his staff, which was an unfair move to everyone else. It was undoubtedly a tough decision to make since he would have loved to work at the most elite level of basketball, but there were more factors than money that played into his decision making about staying in Ypsilanti to lead the Eagles.
Murphy loves his players as well as his staff and he has high hopes for his men in the future.
“We are going to be one of the best mid-majors,” Murphy said. “We will be.”
