What’s it like to be coached by your older sister?
Miracle Gray gets that question a lot.
The 20-year-old point guard from Stone Mountain is in her second season being coached by her sister Nadine Morgan at Purdue.
Each time Miracle describes being coached by her sister, she says it’s not as weird as people might think because she’s just another player on the team.
“There’s a line, and you can see there’s a line,” Miracle said. “We have player/coach (relationship) and then we have sister/sister (relationship)off the court. We don’t take anything going on in basketball beyond that. We keep it there. That’s that.”
Morgan, 36, has been an assistant coach at Purdue and the right hand to coach Sharon Versyp since 2006.
Because of the hours spent together and trust built between players and coaches, both Morgan and Miracle agreed the team itself is like a family, so adding a biological sister into the mix doesn’t distract for either sister from their respective roles.
Even if Morgan didn’t coach Miracle, she said she’d still be watching her games, texting her with advice and lending an ear about her life and transition to college.
Being Miracle’s coach changes nothing.
“You do have a different tie, and obviously, you have that blood tie, so it’s different, but when my girls hurt, I hurt. When they’re happy, I’m happy and it’s the same with Miracle obviously, but it’s family so it may hurt a little more or might be a tad bit happier,” Morgan said.
After more than 16 of working on Versyp’s staff and being her “MVP”, Morgan’s still the best assistant coach Versyp, a former Purdue point guard herself, could ask for.
The addition of Miracle is just a bonus for the team.
Credit: Angel Gray
Credit: Angel Gray
“Nadine’s exceptionally professional,” Versyp said. “She’s really done a great job of separating. I think early on it’s hard with how much she should be involved every second, but she didn’t miss a beat.”
Although Miracle chose to play for her sister’s program, the youngest of the five siblings insists she forged her own path out of Stephenson High School when she chose basketball and Purdue.
Morgan offered her knowledge and experience during the recruiting process, helping Miracle look at schools, learn how to talk to coaches and find out which school was right for her.
Not once did she push Purdue.
“Honestly, she never really gave a push like, ‘You need to look at us,’ or anything,” Miracle said. “Just basically just helped me through a little bit of a process.”
This wasn’t the first time Morgan helped a young woman through the college recruiting process. Sure, she has experience while working with Purdue recruiting over the past few seasons, but she also held her other sister Angel Gray’s hand through the process over a decade ago.
Angel, 29, spent her early years bent on following in Morgan’s footsteps. As a child, Angel would go with her parents to Morgan’s basketball games, but she couldn’t just watch — she had to be in on the action.
“Call me a follower if you want, but I chose to do that and it kind of worked out from there,” Angel said. “I just remember being my sister’s water girl. Like I just wanted to be involved in some type of way. I would just show up and serve the girls water. I was probably the annoying sister.”
Angel continued to follow her hero, even in her college recruitment. As a Stone Mountain High athlete in 2006, Angel signed with Indiana, where Morgan was an assistant coach.
The plan took a devastating turn when Versyp, then the head coach at Indiana, left for Purdue and Morgan went with her.
Disappointed but resilient, Angel decided to attend FSU instead, finding her home with the Seminoles and pursuing her career in sports broadcasting and being called “an adopted part of the Purdue family” by Morgan.
When reflecting on Miracle and Angel wanting to follow in her footsteps, Morgan called it humbling and an honor.
“I think it’s also not surprising just because of how close-knit we are,” Morgan said. “For them to want to do that and not have to and have options, I think that speaks volumes not for just our relationship, (but the program at Purdue).”
Although Miracle has the opportunity to follow, learn from and spend time with Morgan like Angel planned to do, Miracle’s gain doesn’t make Angel jealous.
Angel admires how the stars aligned for her youngest sister in a way they didn’t for her.
“I tell (Miracle) this all the time, but she’s my inspiration,” Angel said. “Just her being young, we’re all like 10-plus years older than her, and it’s very interesting to see her grow and seeing her journey and us being there to help her.”
Credit: Purdue Athletics
Credit: Purdue Athletics
While Angel lives in Atlanta and rarely sees Morgan and Miracle, the three sisters’ paths will cross Nov. 30.
A sports broadcaster for outlets such as NBA-TV and ESPN, Angel will cover Miracle and Morgan’s team for the first time when she does color commentary for Purdue’s game at Georgia Tech.
“For me, my dream was to cover my sisters. ... It’s going to be so hard to keep myself from cheering when (Miracle) scores because we genuinely want everybody to feel like they’re living our their dream and doing the best that they can,” Angel said.
The Morgan-Gray family, which call themselves “The Mob”, will be in full force cheering on Nadine, Angel and Miracle who will for once, be doing what they love all be in the same place.
“We get to all go back home,” Miracle said. “Being from Purdue, we don’t necessarily get to play down South that much we’ll try to stay in the Midwest and play Midwestern teams, but were able to go back home and play in front of our home crowd. Having a sister call the game that you’re playing for the first time ever and that’s just something that doesn’t really happen that often. The excitement is at 10. We couldn’t be happier.”
The Tech-Purdue game will tip off at 7 p.m. at McCamish Pavilion and can be watched on WUPA/Channel 69 and ESPN3.
Credit: Angel Gray
Credit: Angel Gray
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