Jamal Murrays game-winning shot punctuates his journey: Ive come a long way -

PORTLAND, Ore. — If he had his way, Jamal Murray would never have to confront his emotions, his memories, his thoughts that follow him from that April night in 2021. The night his left knee crumpled, his ACL torn, his career path given a sharp detour.

“I don’t plan on thinking about it,” Murray says of the injury and recovery, “but here and there (the thoughts return) and I try to push it away.”

Those were troubled times, so uncertain, so daunting. The day after he tore the ACL in the final minute of a game at Golden State, Murray boarded the Nuggets’ team bus and sat next to coach Michael Malone, and shared such a vulnerable moment that it still sticks with Malone to this day. As the bus rumbled to the airport, Malone said Murray turned to him and asked “Are you guys going to trade me?”

Today, Murray chuckles at that memory.

“I mean, that wasn’t my only thought,” Murray said. “There were so many doubts: Am I going to be different? Am I going to play the same? Am I going to be worth it? So … being traded was one thing on my mind.”

It would be the start of several low moments. After his surgery, he couldn’t lift his leg. For the longest time, he couldn’t navigate stairs. At first, his left leg was unable to lift weights set before him for his rehabilitation. And he still remembers having to Saran Wrap his leg before showering to protect the sutures.

“The first month. The first month was rough,” Murray remembered. “Doubt. Being in the unknown, not knowing where or when the light at the end of the tunnel was going to be.”

It is those moments, those vulnerable moments of darkness and doubt, that made Thursday so special. Trailing by two in the final seconds, Murray hit a contested 3-pointer with 0.9 seconds left to help Denver beat the Trail Blazers 121-120 in front of a stunned Portland crowd.

JAMAL MURRAY CALLED GAME pic.twitter.com/gy97R3qlif

— NBA (@NBA) December 9, 2022

It wasn’t so much that Murray scored 14 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter. Or that his shot prevented Denver from absorbing a four-game losing streak. Or that it came after one of his most frustrating performances since missing all of last season recovering. What made it special was the journey it took to get him to that sweet spot, when he worked a two-man game with teammate Nikola Jokic, and delivered an oh-so-familiar dagger to an opponent.

“I’ve come a long way,” Murray said.

He was talking, of course, about his rehabilitation journey. But he also could have been talking about his last game, a stinker against Dallas. In fact, he was so bad that he felt the need to text Malone in the aftermath.

Malone and Murray have been together for seven seasons, and their line of communication is open and healthy. So it wasn’t unusual when Murray sent Malone a text after Tuesday’s 116-115 home loss to Dallas.

“We talk more than we text,” Murray said. “But I just felt like I should text him before I see him and the team.”

Murray had gone 2-for-11 and missed all five of his 3-point attempts against the Mavericks. Worse yet, he felt like an energy vampire, sucking the life out of his team with his frustrated body language.

“I can’t take myself out of a game like that, mentally,” Murray said. “So I just told Coach, ‘I will be better today. And my mood was unacceptable.’ I gotta be uplifting for my teammates.”

For Malone, who at two different times Thursday said he loved Murray, the text was another layer to their relationship.

“I love Jamal. And he owned it right after that Dallas game,” Malone said. “He sent me a text basically saying ‘I have to be better. I can’t let my frustrations get the best of me.'”

But what made the text really mean something was the follow through. Because on Thursday against the Blazers, there again was Murray struggling. He missed his first five shots. By halftime, he had four points. Entering the fourth quarter, he had seven points on 3-of-10 shooting, including 0-for-5 on 3-pointers. Dating to Sunday’s game against New Orleans, Murray had missed his last 14 attempts from 3.

But instead of letting his frustration get the better of him as he did against Dallas, Murray said he channeled an adage from his father.

“I was struggling, so I was going to play defense and work myself into the game,” Murray said. “That’s what my dad taught me growing up — if you are not playing well, defend yourself into the game. So I did that. I tried to guard Dame (Lillard), Anfernee (Simons) and Jerami (Grant) down the stretch. And that’s what got me going.”

The funny thing about Murray’s heroics, and Thursday’s comeback, was Malone planned to take Murray out early in the fourth quarter, then bring him back for the final stretch. He ended up playing him the entire period, which led to Murray putting in a season-high 35 minutes. The catalyst in Malone’s decision was seeing Murray hit two early 3s in the fourth … the first of which was accompanied by some body language by Murray that said “finally!”

“They all felt good, that’s why,” Murray said of his body language after his first make. “I was frustrated.”

Malone sensed a rhythm building, so he gambled and kept Murray in.

“Once Jamal sees the ball go in, it doesn’t take many for him to catch fire,” Malone said.

Before the game, Murray said he studied old film of him playing against the Blazers. The last time he played against Portland, the Blazers had Enes Freedom (then Kanter) at center, and he said two of the clips showed him making 3-pointers over Freedom from the exact spot he made Thursday’s game winner.

“Those are two of my favorite shots I can remember,” he said.

Now, he will have another memory. He has had bigger scoring nights this season — 31 on Nov. 28 against Houston followed by 26 against the Rockets two nights later — but he hasn’t had a bigger shot since returning. That made Thursday special and allowed him to revisit those memories he tries so hard to compartmentalize. So for a night, he allowed himself to remember the bus ride with Malone, allowed himself to relive the frustration of being unable to lift his left leg, and he allowed himself to remember all the doubt about his future.

“I remember those moments so vividly,” Murray said. “It’s been a long journey, and this is another step in my progress. It’s not where I want to be yet, but this is definitely another step.”

He is averaging 17.8 points in 21 games, and still fights the urge to reclaim the form that allowed him to average 21.2 points before his ACL injury 20 months ago. It’s a process, Malone keeps reminding him.

“I told him going into this season — you have to take a deep breath and understand that this is still a process,” Malone said. “Just because you are back … you are going to be a better player in a month … Christmas … All-Star (break) … postseason. And tonight is a nice step in that direction.”

There was also a humorous lesson Thursday in conditioning the mind. Murray said he came to the sideline at one moment during Thursday’s game and told teammates Ish Smith and Davon Reed that he had “banged his bad knee.”

“They were like, ‘Don’t say bad knee!’ They both said it at the same time,” Murray said, laughing. “What is it, the mind leads the body? So it was good to keep in the back of my mind.”

There are likely greater days ahead. Probably a bundle of 30-point nights. Likely some more buzzer beaters. And, playoff series, where Murray likes to say he shines the brightest. But for a night, the Nuggets soaked it all in, Malone perhaps most of all. He said what resonates the most for him is that bus ride and Murray worrying about being traded.

“That’s where his mind was: Maybe I’m damaged goods; maybe they don’t want me anymore,” Malone said. “Obviously, I quickly shot that down and said ‘We love you; I love you. You are not being traded. You are going to come back a better player, there is zero doubt in my mind.”’

There were some in the Nuggets traveling party who wondered aloud whether Malone got emotional reliving that story, a notion he later denied. But it was clear Malone grasped the magnitude of Thursday’s shot and performance.

“These little victories, these small moments — which life is about — these small moments allow this journey to be that much more rewarding,” Malone said. “It’s great to see for him.”

For Murray? He embraced the moment, and allowed himself to go back in time, but only for a moment.

“It’s been a grind, and just to have this moment … I don’t want to get too high, too low, but this is another step in my progress,” Murray said.

(Photo of Jamal Murray: Alika Jenner / Getty Images)

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