What makes Mel ... Mel

In my past three Stanford blogs I have done a great job at making them extremely ME oriented. I have taken you wonderful fans on a journey of my life that consisted of not only words, but video too. In my final entry I would like to take you behind the scenes and show you what makes Mel…well, Mel. In this entry I can’t think of anyone or anything that makes me more of who I am than my parents.

For all of you who were at senior day for our final home game and was able to meet my mother, may have picked up on the fact that we talk exactly alike. I honestly was not aware of this fact until afterwards when my teammates told me that if they closed their eyes it sounded like me telling a story about myself. My mom has always been there for me. I can remember her teaching me to ride a bike when I was four-years-old and comforting me when I thought the adults in the park were laughing at me and not with me. She also taught me how to dribble a basketball in our very own kitchen (something I later learned most mothers wouldn’t allow) and would constantly play me one on one in the backyard.

Speaking of the backyard, the backyard was a place where my dad would rebound hundreds and thousands of lay-ups. He taught me to hit the top of the square, the correct footwork, and made me use my left hand on the left side. I learned to love the lay-up and I truly believe that because of my dad I am the driving point guard that I am today. I didn’t start off as a point guard though. Although I despise post players, in my beginning years I enjoyed blocking shots at the center position. Thankfully my dad got me to give up that position, informing me that great players wanted the ball and where I really wanted to be was at the point guard spot. Thank the lord for that; Stanford would really struggle if they had me as their 5’8 center hahaha.

Although basketball grew to be a large part of my life, my parents always supported me in anything that I wanted to try. And believe me I tried everything. I did tae-kwon-do, soccer, ballet, runway modeling, singing, swim lessons, gymnastics, tap dancing, fishing, I pretty much wanted to try anything that looked cool on TV. I was also interested in money at a very young age so my dad took me to an investment seminar that lasted for hours but it was something that I truly enjoyed.

All in all I want to thank both of my parents Rochelle and Joseph Murphy (my mom would kill me if I didn’t mention them by name haha) for doing all that they possibly could to make me the person I am today. I am extremely grateful. I would also like to give my sister a special shout out for always being someone who could relate to me on a kid level. Thanks for sparring with me even though you never took tae-kwon-do, thanks for playing me one on one in our mini hoop in the kitchen.

P.S. another thanks to the TV personalities in which I get my sense of humor as well as other personalities

- Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Elaine Benes, Cosmo Kramer, Doug Heffernan, TJ Detweiler, Ashley Spinelli, Francis “the Hustler kid”, Bart Simpson, Brain – from Pinky and the Brain, Katt Williams, Stewey Griffin …..if I forgot anybody I’m sorry.



THANK YOU EVERYONE !!!!!!!!