Toronto Raptors' draft pick explains viral reaction to being selected
New Toronto Raptors player Collin Murray-Boyles sure made quite the impression on NBA Draft night.
It just maybe wasn’t the one Raptors fans were expecting.
When the 6-foot-7 forward out of South Carolina was shown on the broadcast after the Raptors picked him at ninth overall, Murray-Boyles appeared to let out an expletive caught by the cameras.
Look I don't know what the situation is, but Collin Murray-Boyles did shake his head and drop an f-bomb after getting picked by the Raptors pic.twitter.com/dy00yEdIeB
— CJ Fogler š«” (@cjzero) June 26, 2025
As expected, social media didn’t exactly handle the viral reaction calmly.
Was Murray-Boyles disappointed to be selected by Toronto? Unsure about going to Canada? Forgetting where he was for a second?
Whatever you thought of the clip, it seemed like just about everyone had a theory about his motivation behind the reaction.
While the video didn’t exactly appear to be anĀ angry expletive, it certainly led to all sorts of speculation about his feelings on moving to Toronto.
But according to Murray-Boyles himself, he was mostly just overwhelmed by it all.
āJust disbelief. Torontoās the first team I worked out for. What I said was not a bad thingā¦ just a crazy momentā¦ obviously thankful for the opportunity,ā Murray-Boyles explained in a press conference with reporters following the pick.
“A lot of teams will tell the players that they’re getting picked… I don’t think he knew [he was coming to the Raptors],” Toronto GM Bobby Webster explained. “It was truly a reaction to it happening. Maybe we should leak to them more.”
The Raptors themselves even posted a tweet poking fun at the hysteria around the moment.
See guys, heās happy!! š pic.twitter.com/CDwAmxLZQr
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) June 26, 2025
Murray-Boyles, a 20-year-old from Columbia, SC, spent the last two seasons playing college basketball before entering the draft process.
When asked Murray-Boyles shouted out his older brother James, who plays professionally in Kazakhstan.
āMy brother,” he told Offside. “Heās the reason I picked up a basketballā¦ My family, mom and dad, they’ve been through a lot just raising me and my brothers has been really tough for them, and they’ve been able to succeed and persevere through it. So to see what they’ve done for me only makes me want to go hard every day and whatever I’m doing.ā
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