Jamal Murray was playing some of the best basketball of his life before he tore his ACL in April 2021.
Shortly after he got the devastating news about his left knee, his head rushed with thoughts. After the initial shock and pain and the dust began to settle, he had a lot to process. What did this mean for his basketball career? Even more urgently, what did this mean for his day-to-day life?
Murray was drafted by the Nuggets with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. Denver is the only city he has known as a professional basketball player. Would they still want him now that he required such a recovery?
Jason Quick wrote about Murray’s initial thought process (via The Athletic):
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.”
When he spoke to his head coach, Michael Malone, he was quickly reassured that Denver’s front office had no interest in such a transaction.
In fact, Malone said, they felt assured that he would eventually come back as an even stronger basketball player.
“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.”
Murray, who connected on a game-winning shot against the Trail Blazers on Dec. 8, is starting to find his rhythm again after missing all of last season for the Nuggets.
