Dejounte Murray: Injury, Net Worth, Kids & Career Timeline (2025)

Dejounte Murray has spent his NBA career turning setbacks into comebacks — but the past two years tested even his patience after he tore his right Achilles in January 2025, a season-ending injury documented by Basketball-Reference (NBA statistics), and spent roughly 13 months away, per Yahoo Sports (NBA news desk). Off the court, fans keep asking about his two children with Jania Meshell, his Seattle childhood, and his net worth — here’s what we could verify and what’s still unclear.

Height: 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) · Weight: 81 kg (180 lbs) · Age: 30 (born September 19, 1996) · Team: New Orleans Pelicans · Position: Guard

Eight facts, one pattern: the basketball résumé is easy to verify, while the personal details carry asterisks.

What happened with Dejounte Murray?

The short version: Murray tore his right Achilles on January 31, 2025, against the Boston Celtics, and the Pelicans lost their starting guard for the rest of the season — Basketball-Reference (NBA statistics) records both the date and the season-ending diagnosis. It was a ruptured tendon, the kind of injury that has ended or shortened many NBA careers.

The context matters. The Hawks traded Murray to the Pelicans in July 2024, per Wikipedia (community biography), and he was still adjusting to a new team and a new role when the tendon gave out. What followed was a longer road back than anyone projected.

Is Dejounte Murray injured?

• Torn right Achilles: January 2025, season-ending rupture (The Athletic (sports journalism))
• Returned in 2025–26 after missing the first half of the season to rehab (CBS Sports (NBA data and news))

Today, the honest answer is no. Murray returned to the court during the 2025–26 season, though the comeback was short — CBS Sports (NBA data and news) recorded just 14 regular-season appearances.

How long was Dejounte Murray out for?

• 2018–19: torn ACL in a preseason game vs. Houston Rockets; missed the whole season (Wikipedia (community biography))
• 2024–25/2025–26: roughly 13 months from the Achilles injury to his return (Yahoo Sports (NBA news desk))
• 2025–26: first half of the season spent rehabbing (CBS Sports (NBA data and news))

The totals are sobering. Add the 2018 ACL year to the 13-month Achilles rehab, and Murray has now lost roughly two full seasons of his prime to lower-body injuries — a fact that follows him into every evaluation of what comes next.

The pattern: Murray’s career has run on a two-year cycle — an injury season, a comeback season, a new contract. The open question is whether that cycle repeats after the most serious injury of his career.

How many kids does Dejounte Murray have?

Murray has two children, both with Jania Meshell: a son, Dejounte Jr., born in 2020, and a daughter born in 2022. Wikipedia (community biography) documents both children and identifies Meshell as their mother.

Does Dejounte Murray have kids with Jania?

• Dejounte Jr., born 2020 (Wikipedia (community biography))
• A daughter, born 2022 (Wikipedia (community biography))
• Mother of both children: Jania Meshell (Wikipedia (community biography))

Yes. Meshell and Murray were a couple for years before the 2023 split, and both children were born during that relationship. Murray has been open about fatherhood being central to his identity, and the kids regularly appear in his public life.

Who is Dejounte Murray’s baby mama?

• Jania Meshell, his longtime partner and now ex-partner (Wikipedia (community biography))
• Originally from California (Wikipedia (community biography))
• Split in 2023; co-parenting continues (Wikipedia (community biography))

The short answer is Jania Meshell. She and Murray were a public couple for years, and she remains the mother of both his children. After the breakup, both have emphasized that the parenting relationship goes on.

Who is Jania Meshell’s baby father?

• Dejounte Murray is the father of both children (Wikipedia (community biography))
• Both kids: Dejounte Jr. and a daughter (Wikipedia (community biography))

Dejounte Murray. There has never been any public dispute about paternity, and Murray has publicly embraced the father role.

What happened to Dejounte Murray as a child?

Murray grew up in Seattle, Washington, and his childhood included a loss that shaped the rest of his life: his father died in 2010, when Murray was a teenager. Wikipedia (community biography) records the loss in his personal history.

• Born September 19, 1996, in Seattle, Washington (Wikipedia (community biography))
• Father died in 2010 (Wikipedia (community biography))
• Attended Rainier Beach High School in Seattle (Wikipedia (community biography))
• Played college basketball at Washington from 2014–2016 (ESPN (sports broadcaster))

The loss pushed basketball to the center of Murray’s life. He emerged as a top prospect at Rainier Beach, stayed home for college at the University of Washington, and left after two seasons with his name on draft boards.

Why it matters: Murray’s response to two devastating injuries — steady work, patience, no public bitterness — looks exactly like the response of someone who learned early that loss does not pause life.

What’s Dejounte Murray’s net worth?

There is no official number. Public estimates of Murray’s net worth generally land between $15 million and $20 million as of 2025, but nobody has audited his accounts — treat that range as an informed guess, not a fact.

• Four-year, $120 million extension signed in 2023 (RealGM (NBA analytics))
• All-Star selection and NBA steals leader in 2021–22 (Wikipedia (community biography))
• Endorsements: reportedly includes a Nike deal, with no public dollar figure

The $120 million extension is the anchor of Murray’s financial profile. RealGM (NBA analytics) lists the four-year deal signed in 2023, which was the biggest contract of Murray’s career at the time. The injury has complicated the storyline: a player making star-level money has played just 14 games since the Achilles tear.

Endorsements add to the total, with a reportedly ongoing Nike partnership. But without public figures, the honest take is simple: the contract is real, the net worth is estimated, and anyone who gives you an exact number is guessing.

The trade-off: a $120 million contract raises the bar for everything Murray does now. For the Pelicans, the deal only reads as a bargain if he produces close to a full season; for Murray, the pressure to justify it starts every October.

Why did NBA and Jania break up?

First, a translation: “NBA” in that search question means Dejounte Murray, not the league. The breakup happened in 2023, and Wikipedia (community biography) records the split alongside the couple’s shared parenting history.

What’s known is the timeline: Murray and Meshell ended their relationship in 2023 after years together and two children. What’s not known is the reason — public reports pointed to personal differences, but neither party has detailed the split, and the public record stays quiet on who initiated it or what the final disagreement was.

Where is Jania Meshell originally from?

• Jania Meshell is originally from California (Wikipedia (community biography))
• She became publicly known as Murray’s longtime partner (Wikipedia (community biography))

Meshell’s California roots are the clearest biographical detail on record. Most of her public profile is still tied to Murray and their two children, which is why searches about her lead back to the relationship and the breakup.

The upshot: the breakup is the one chapter where the public record is intentionally thin. The relationship ended, the co-parenting continued, and the reasons stayed private — which is exactly why the question keeps circulating.

Dejounte Murray: career and life timeline

Twelve dates, one pattern: the public milestones are easy to list, but the private ones — a father’s death, a birth, a breakup — explain the player better than any box score.

What the timeline shows: Murray has never had a smooth, linear rise. Every peak — the All-Star season, the big contract, the New Orleans trade — was followed by a test, and the 2025–26 return is the first time he has come back from a major injury while carrying a marquee contract.

What’s confirmed and what’s still unclear

The balance: the biographical facts are solid, but the financial and relational details are not. Anyone claiming an exact net worth or a definitive reason for the breakup is guessing.

What Murray and Jania have said

Both have spoken publicly about the two biggest chapters of Murray’s personal life — the injury and the breakup.

“I’ve been through too much to let this break me. When I come back, I’m coming back to be myself.”

Dejounte Murray, on his Achilles rehab, as reported by The Athletic (sports journalism)

“We will always be a family. Our kids come first, and that will never change.”

Jania Meshell, in a 2023 social media statement about her breakup with Murray, as reported by Yahoo Sports (NBA news desk)

The takeaway: both have kept the public story disciplined — no feud, no tell-all, no tabloid loop. Murray talks about work; Meshell talks about the kids, and that restraint is the most underrated part of the story.

The verdict: For New Orleans, the calculation is simple: build his workload gradually and let him earn the star minutes again — or accept that his most dependable role from here on is as a veteran leader rather than a nightly All-Star.

Frequently asked questions

The pattern: the searches about Murray split evenly between box-score questions and family questions — and the family ones are the ones no trade machine can answer.