Bulls Draft Erik Murphy in the 2nd round

Erik Murphy became the 17th Billy Donovan coached player to be selected in the NBA Draft, when the Chicago Bulls selected him with the 49th pick in the 2nd round.

Murphy projects as a stretch-four in the NBA and was rated as the No. 58 overall player in the draft by Chad Ford of ESPN. Murphy’s biggest strength is his 3-point shooting and ability to draw opposing big men away from the basket. He’s not the most athletic player and needs to work on his rebounding, but he should fit in well with the Bulls. He will also join fellow Gator basketball alum Joakim Noah in Chicago.

Murphy made a complete 180 during his time in Florida. After playing limited minutes, Murphy almost decided to transfer away from Florida and had even come up with a potential list of schools to transfer to. After meeting with Donovan, Murphy decided to stay at Florida to finish out his career.

It turned out to be the right decision.

Murphy became the 49th player to score 1,000 career points at Florida and was named to the SEC All-Tournament team in his junior and senior seasons.

Murphy signed Andy Miller to be his agent in July. Miller also represents NBA players Kevin Garnett, Jamal Crawford, Chauncey Billups and Omer Asik.

Former teammate Chandler Parsons reacted to the news on Twitter.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p>Yessssss <a href=”https://twitter.com/e_murphy33″>@e_murphy33</a>! Proud of you!!! I’m sure <a href=”https://twitter.com/JoakimNoah”>@JoakimNoah</a> will take good care of you. See you soon.</p>&mdash; Chandler Parsons (@ChandlerParsons) <a href=”https://twitter.com/ChandlerParsons/statuses/350459686618791936″>June 28, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC