How Jamal Murray’s journey to the NBA Finals mirrors that of Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Stephen Curry

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By Webdesk



DENVER — The memorized reactions are part of the reality here at the NBA Finals, as players and coaches, mere days away from their life’s goal, field question after question they’d rather ignore.

But this question – the second to Jamal Murray on Saturday, after so many to others about the pick-and-roll, possible adjustments, and so forth – felt different. This one was about a journey, not a series. Both about the man on stage and the player he may or may not be for the rest of this series.

“You were in Medellin in 2019 for Basketball Without Borders,” said a reporter. “That young man was carefree, cheerful. You’ve been through a few things since then.’

Unspoken, but understood, was the devastating 2021 injury that sidelined Murray for over a season.

“What would you have told young Jamal Murray in 2019,” the reporter asked, “and could he have expected anything you told him about your experience?”

Murray seemed to think for a moment, more deeply than he would about the questions that would follow.

A lot had happened to him in those years: the slow, steady rise to NBA success and then to NBA greatness. The 2020 Western Conference Finals loss of the bubble to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers. And then the ACL tear in the 2021 playoffs that cost Murray the entire 2022 season, and his team’s chances until his return last October.

“Just to keep up,” he said thoughtfully. “You know, life is going to happen. Things are going to happen. I just have to keep the mental strength to bounce back into whatever it is, and stay strong. ‘This too shall pass.'”

Those things are over, but in doing so, have contributed to Murray becoming arguably one of the most important players in the game. If he’s great in the upcoming games, the Denver Nuggets will probably win the championship. If he isn’t – and of course there are many other variables – the Miami Heat may find life.

Either way, the mental determination and toughness the Nuggets have had to display to get here is mirrored by the traits Murray has had to master. Basketball has been the team’s journey. Murray’s has been much more than that.

The injury not only took a year off his career. It overshadowed the greatness he showed in the bubble, the danger he posed to opposing teams, and the rare greatness he could earn in days to come.

The Nuggets Guardian is a star, but one without all the trappings of a star’s profile. He’s a huge talent whose path, the path that has shaped him, has also broadly obscured to a wider audience just how much talent he brings to this team and this league.

Consider: Murray has never been an All-Star. He has never made an All-NBA team. You can talk all day about how true basketball fans know what Murray is all about, but ultimately his talents and successes are not recognized by the national collective of fans or the media in the way that true recognition marks.

There is another way to achieve such things, a truer mark of a star: not by being recognized by others, but by seizing that recognition by helping lead your team to a championship.

Let’s be clear: Even on a team that includes two-time MVP Nikola Jokic – who also earns a level of national admiration in this series that he should have already owned – Murray stands out.

It’s not Joke Than Murray. It’s Joke And Murray.

“They’re both dynamic,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said at the start of the Final, using words he’s repeated ever since. “They can both do it alone, but they really complement each other. That’s hard to find in this league, when your two best players absolutely complement each other. They’ve both scored 50 in a playoff game. And they both can be facilitators .”

We tend to think of stars as products of their God-given gifts, of their work ethic and display of grandeur that they unravel in the greatest moments, or over the course of statistically stunning seasons. And that is partly true. But often it is the failures, the heartaches, the struggles – for those who can overcome them – that really push the good to become great, and the great to be more than that.

Michael Jordan clung to the idea that he was cut from his college team, even though the truth was more complicated. LeBron James’ had to experience his own humiliation and failure in the 2011 NBA Finals to unlock his championship excellence. Stephen Curry’s path to changing the game itself began in high school, when he rebuilt the way he shot the ball from scratch during the worst basketball moments of his life.

These are excruciating processes and are the kinds of journeys that those who achieve true greatness often share.

As big as Murray was in the bubble, injuries like the one he sustained — and the fear it evokes, the literal pain it gives, and the lessons of both what can be lost and what has been reclaimed — can lift stars higher.

This season Murray has played with a passion, joy and confidence that cannot be faked. Jokic is the best player on the team, yes, but he needs another star, like Murray, to be here. Above all, a star who has battled and struggled, one who has shown the mental toughness and confidence it takes to beat a team like the Miami Heat.

Still on stage, Murray spoke about this.

“It applies to everything, negative and positive,” he said. “So just keep a cool head and know that one day you’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

That day is now. And that light – if he and Jokic can lead this team to three more wins – is the most glorious hue the league has to offer: that of an NBA champion.





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