‘My head was just spinning’: Out-of-blue offer takes QU graduate from college sports medicine to working with NBA superstar

QUINCY — The call was unexpected. So was the offer.

In the matter of a few days, Murphy Grant’s professional life changed forever.

He was in Quincy last weekend, accepting his induction into the Quincy University Sports Hall of Fame on Oct. 23, celebrating with family and college friends. 

Three days later, he was back at his new job in Salt Lake City, working as the athletic trainer for Donovan Mitchell, a two-time NBA All-Star guard with the Utah Jazz.

After the Jazz defeated the Denver Nuggets 122-110 this week on Tuesday, Grant was with the team for Thursday’s road victory 122-91 over the Houston Rockets. He’s with the Jazz for their game Saturday night for the Chicago Bulls.

Grant previously was senior associate athletic director at Wake Forest

Before his new job, Grant was in his third year as the senior associate athletic director and athletics health care administrator at Wake Forest University, a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“I oversaw sports medicine, nutrition, sports performance and sports technology. Just the ideal role that I was really looking for,” Grant said.

Then the call came.

“It took me 100 percent took me off guard. Truly, it was like a random call,” Grant said. “They wanted to see if I would be interested in being a healthcare professional for another athlete. I didn’t know any other information. But they asked, ‘Would I be interested in it?’ The next thing I know, I’m talking to my wife, Amy, saying, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’”

The details started trickling in. An unknown player with the Utah Jazz was looking for someone to take care of his overall health and wellness — be the lead not just for his medical care but to advise people already important on his staff doing nutrition, psychology, medicine and post performance. 

Grant, his wife and their two sons were on their way to Dallas to visit Matt Steffe and his wife, Beth — both Quincy University graduates — when he received another call to confirm he was interested in the job.

“And once I said I was interested, the ball just started rolling,” Grant said.

Grant must ‘deal with every single issue’ in Mitchell’s life

He pulled his car to the side of Interstate 35 and participated in a Zoom call with Mitchell, Mitchell’s agent and Mitchell’s mother to talk about the job.

“My head was just spinning,” Grant said. “First, just the opportunity to be a part of the NBA. I’ve been doing collegiate athletics for 24 years, and now to go to the highest of the highest from men’s basketball standpoint and work with a superstar … all that is happening. So I said I would do it.”

After visiting Dallas, Grant went to Las Vegas to meet Mitchell during the team’s training camp. 

He recently sold his home in North Carolina but maintains a home in Lawrence, Kan., where he was the head football athletic trainer for 12 years and the director of sports medicine for 11 years at the University of Kansas. He will live in Salt Lake City during basketball season and travel with the Jazz.

At Wake Forest, he oversaw a team of 32 professionals on the university’s sports performance team. Working exclusively with one athlete is a new experience for Grant.

“It’s a new challenge, he said. I’m dealing with every aspect of his health and wellness. The NBA is a little different, and I’ve never experienced that before. Dealing with (Mitchell), he is my sole responsibility. Every particular thing about him I need to know versus this broad spectrum of dealing with multiple athletes a little bit here and a little bit there. It’s all him. Donovan is completely committed to all of this so we are in constant communication from the time he wakes up until he goes to bed. It’s pretty intense.”

At QU, Grant ‘found out who I was and what I wanted’

Grant said the Jazz practice at 11 a.m. every day. He sees Mitchell in the team facility for breakfast, and he consults with team dieticians to make sure he’s eating what he should be based on Grant’s evaluations of the medical needs of Mitchell’s body.

“I’m in the facility each morning at 7 a.m., preparing for the day, reviewing activity from the previous day and also working with him to get his body ready for the day’s activity,” Grant said. “I’m out of there by 4 or 5 (p.m.), and that’s after we’ve worked on several recovery techniques. If I need to see him later in the evening, I’ll typically go to his home. And that’s an everyday thing.”

Grant missed Utah’s Oct. 22 game at Sacramento to attend the induction ceremony at Quincy University. He played cornerback, wide receiver and punt returner for the QU football team and had 12 career interceptions, which ranks third in school history. He holds the single-game interception record with three against Winona State in 1996. Grant earned second team All-Illini Badger Conference honors in 1994, 1995 and 1996. 

His wife was a member of 1994 and 1995 women’s soccer teams that also were inducted into the Hall of Fame the same weekend.

“Coming to Quincy, I found out who I was and what I wanted,” Grant said. “This is where I shaped the mindset to work. There’s always someone better than you out there, but the thing you can control is how hard you work. All I did was work to get myself at least in the door, and then I had to work even harder to stay. No one knew who I was when I showed up at Quincy from Webster Groves (Mo.), and I was a four-year starter and three-year captain.

“I wouldn’t change my experience here for anything.”

Grant’s sons also highly successful athletes

Along with his experience on the athletic staffs at Kansas and Wake Forest, Grant has worked with the Navy SEALs, “The Biggest Loser” television show and Tiger Woods (when he tore his ACL in 2007) and Derek Jeter (when he broke his ankle in 2012). He also was the first executive chair of the National Athletic Trainers Association Intercollegiate Council for Sports Medicine in 2017.

When Grant isn’t busy with his job, he watches his oldest son, Jackson, play for the University of Tulsa soccer team that is ranked No. 6 in the nation, or his youngest son, Gavin, who trains in taekwondo at the National Center of Excellence in Colorado Springs, Colo. He is a scholarship athlete through the USA taekwondo’s resident athlete academy. Gavin has his eye on being a future Olympian.

“I’ve been very lucky with the experiences that have come to our family. Just extremely blessed,” Grant said. “Our children, they have their dreams, and this is what they want, but they understand they have to work for it.”

Meanwhile, Grant has been in his latest job for less than three weeks but enjoys the challenge.

“I’m excited to be working with such a quality person, because he’s a really, really good young man,” Grant said of Mitchell. “It makes my job so much easier. It’s been really awesome. He’s special. I really appreciate him and the opportunity.”