Breaking News: Denver Nuggets finally trade Jamal Murray for $160 Million’s
On any other night, Jamal Murray’s 50-point performance in an elimination game would be heralded as an incandescent peak of basketball brilliance. His flair in a high-stakes moment was unforgettable, and typically he would have been surrounded by smiling Denver Nuggets teammates pouring water on his head, giggling and beaming with pride.
But last night, celebration was far from Murray’s mind. As TNT’s Jared Greenberg asked his first question and the fake crowd noise burbled away, Murray staggered in place, like a boxer refusing to relent. He stared at the ground and directed attention to his shoes, which had George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s faces sketched on the heel. Then he put both hands on his knees, bent at the waist, and tried to compose himself.
Greenberg asked Murray what he was thinking about. The 23-year-old stood, his eyes puffy and wet. The fight to articulate his own emotions had proven far more difficult than anything Utah’s defense had just thrown his way. “These shoes give me life,” he said through sniffles. “Even though these people are gone, they give me life.”
You don’t need to be a star to encourage empathy, but over the past few weeks Murray has become one. His postseason numbers are delirious. He’s scored 142 points in his last three games and is shooting 58.5 percent from the floor, 57.4 percent from beyond the three-point line.
The message Murray conveyed after Game 6 was intensified by everything he achieved on the court before it. He isn’t the first player to deflect praise in that setting and refocus the attention to where it should go. But on Sunday night he became the most memorable illustration of what that can look like. It’s something only a star can do.
Murray won’t drill nearly 60 percent of his threes for the rest of his career, but moves like that one transcend small sample sizes. This is a genuine phenom who uses technical precision to augment the boundaries of his own imagination. In an offense that normally surrounds Nikola Jokic’s unselfish whirling dervish, Murray has come into his own as so much more than a complement. At his apex, he too can’t be contained.
As he fought back tears after Sunday night’s game, Murray said “I just want to win.” But right now, with the fight for social justice taking clear precedent over basketball results, the opportunity to express yourself to millions of viewers immediately after a win has become more weighty than the win itself.
