Childhood friends and Klein Forest teammates Chris Hines and Toure’ Murry took the floor together in Conroe like they did so many times as youth basketball players.
“I’ve known Toure’ Murry since I was ten years old, and you know we’re 36 right now,” Hines said. “It’s one of those things where the relation was a bond with basketball and it became a friendship with men.”
Hines and Murry were team leaders for the Golden Eagles’ run to a state championship in 2008.
“Passion, commitment, dedication, hard work I mean, they were gym rats, always in the gym,” former Klein Forest assistant coach Aundre Branch said.
The two teamed up again for a basketball camp to give back through their joint foundation Vivid Dreams.
“Chris and I have reached unimaginable heights,” Murry said. “Anytime you can give back to the community in this type of way, this is what it’s about right here.”
“Not only give back to our hometown and the people that have helped us throughout our journey, but give back to the grassroots of Houston, Texas,” Hines said.
Murry and Hines had NBA dreams as kids, just like the campers they are instructing.
“I had the opportunity to play in the NBA, and now I’m using all that knowledge to come back and bring it to the kids and let them know that they can dream big,” Murray said.
Murry went to Wichita State after graduating from Klein Forest and played with several NBA organizations. Hines played at Utah and Drake in college and spent time playing in the ABA and overseas. Now they live out their dreams in the NBA, not as players, but as assistant coaches.
“I work with some of the best athletes: LeBron James, Tyrese Maxey, BJ Edgecombe,” Murry said about his work as an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers. “It’s my job to get these guys better.”
Hines is an assistant coach in Minnesota with the Timberwolves and works with superstar Anthony Edwards.
“If you love the game, you dedicate yourself to the craft, and you do it with a great heart, you know, you find your kind of way in terms of coaching,” Hines said.
Campers are the real winners here. NBA-level coaching from two who weren’t afraid to dream big and work hard to get where they wanted to go in life.
“One of my mottos is, ‘Reach for the stars; if you fall, you land on a cloud,'” Hines said. “I ended up laying on a cloud coaching, but I also had the ability to watch my best friend actually get to the NBA,” Hines said.
When asked what it feels like to live his dream, Murry simply said: “I’m dreaming every day. It doesn’t stop … Don’t wake me up. Vivid Dreams, always.”
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