DALLAS, TX - NOVEMBER 07: Troy Murphy #6 of the Dallas Mavericks steals the ball from Alan Anderson #6 of the Toronto Raptors at American Airlines Center on November 7, 2012 in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

As Troy Murphy explains it in a wonderful profile on the erstwhile NBA player by New York Times scribe Andrew Keh, there isn't much he misses about a game he once played at the highest level for 12 seasons.

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“I miss the socks. The socks were unbelievable. There’s something about NBA socks.”

Instead, as we learned from Keh, Murphy is enrolled at Columbia University. We've seen active NBA players complete degrees from the colleges for which they played — as Vince Carter did from the University of North Carolina in 2001 and Jeff Green did from Georgetown University in 2012 — but enrolling at an Ivy League institution after pocketing $66 million from six different teams makes Murphy a rare bird.

“My life has always been planned out,” Murphy said, smiling. “You got a schedule in August, and you knew on St. Patrick’s Day you’d be playing in Cleveland, or you’d have an off day. It’s exciting not knowing. Not knowing is intriguing.”

Very cool, and not just because Murphy circled St. Patrick's Day as soon as the NBA schedule dropped.

A stretch forward before it was popularized as a term, Murphy declared for the NBA draft following his junior season at the University of Notre Dame, and the two-time Big East Player of the Year was selected 14th overall by the Warriors in 2001. He averaged 10.8 points and 7.8 rebounds over a dozen seasons.

Two-plus years after playing his final NBA game as a member of the Mavericks, he's maintaining a 3.80 GPA as a 34-year-old Columbia dean's list student, well on his way to completing the sociology degree he began in South Bend, according to Keh. Other than a 6-foot-11 frame and a Warriors backpack left from his six years in Golden State, Murphy reportedly goes largely unnoticed on the Morningside Heights campus, since most of his classmates were toddlers when he graduated Morristown (N.J.) Delbarton School in 1998.

Of course, this isn't the first time Murphy has gone back to school. If you don't recall, he spent six weeks a handful of years ago studying to become a licensed spray tanning artist. We always knew he was special.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don't Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach