NBA: Jamal Murray – The Bruce Lee of the NBA

Jamal Murray grew up in a small Canadian village. His father Roger recognized his son’s talent at an early age and trained the young Jamal completely on basketball – with sometimes curious methods. But hard training sessions, an iron focus and abandonment finally paid off: Murray is today one of the most exciting young players of the NBA.

Steven Adams switches to Jamal Murray to play another 5 seconds. Crossover Murray, fake move to the basket, stepback behind the three-line – and Zack: Adams can’t control his 113 kilos of live weight anymore and falls over his own feet. It’s a textbook-quality gluebreaker. Murray stays cold and hits the open threesome – nothing but net.

The Pepsi Center is upside down, but the Canadian just turns around and celebrates his hit with a fake archery shot that has given him the nickname “Blue Arrow”. For him, the action is no longer unusual, even though she’s making the rounds at Social Media, of course, and quite a few casual NBA fans are drawn to the fact that a rather interesting player is growing up in the small market of Denver.

If you go a little deeper, you’ll notice that Murray also has a rather unique path behind him.

In a snowy Canadian village Jamal grew up as the older of two brothers. His father Roger, himself a passionate basketball player and athlete, took the youngest under his wing early on. The target NBA player was predetermined; the little Jamal knew a “normal” youth only from television – if TV consumption was tolerated at all in the house of Murray.

While other children played with Star Wars characters and Legos, Murray had to stand on the court at the age of six against his 10-year-old husband. I never let him hang out with other guys in the mall,”his father told Bleacher Report:” Kids waste so much time these days. I wanted everything he does to make sense.”

In addition to the usual role models such as Michael Jordan and Vince Carter (then still with the Toronto Raptors), Murray’s way of thinking and living was guided by a very special luminary: Bruce Lee.

Roger Murray discovered the probably best martial artist of the 20th century. He was immediately fascinated by his ability to concentrate:”No matter who stood in front of him, he was never afraid. I wanted to know more about how he became mentally so strong,” he tried to apply the lessons learned to his son.

“I grew up in a kung fu house. Only when I got older did I find out that other families didn’t talk about the Shaolin Temple and Jackie Chan at dinner,”Murray told the Players Tribune. Bruce Lee movies were just as much a part of the daily routine as hard training sessions on the track. Push-ups in the snow should increase Murray’s pain threshold, Lee’s fighting scenes should sharpen his mental abilities.

Even basketballerically Roger Murray had quite precise ideas for his son at an early age and adapted his training to the change of the NBA – Jamal should not think in terms of positions, but always have an eye for the entire game.

When Murray was six years old, they worked for months on the footwork and post-moves of a (modern) center and power forwards. This was followed by the inside-outside game of a small forward. Only when Murray mastered this sufficiently, father and son went over to shooting drills. Finally, the dribbling and ball handling units of a point guard were added.

The fact that the son benefited enormously from this was evident at college. Murray’s former college coach John Calipari praised Murray as “he’s a positionless player”, praising his former college coach John Calipari:”We can use him anywhere on the pitch, and it was this versatility that made Murray the lottery picker after just a year in Kentucky – in 2016, the 18-year-old was already ranked 7th out of the top 18 players.

As the youngest draftsman in Colorado, he found it difficult to find his role in a team with playoff ambitions. The throw from outside wasn’t really reliable (33.4 percent 3FG) and as his playmaking wasn’t yet up to the highest standards, Murray found it difficult to earn constant playing time. He was allowed 21.5 minutes per game as a rookie, while Denver was more or less unsuccessfully trying to beat him, Emmanuel Mudiay and later Jameer Nelson.

However, Murray’s enormous potential still sparked off occasionally, such as in the 2017 Rising Stars Challenge. With 36 points, out of nine out of 14 three, the Canadian crowned himself MVP and sent a clear exclamation mark to the competition, which he could expect in the future.

Moreover, he was not discouraged. Murray has been mentally prepared to deal with difficulties. He meditates before and after each workout and game, reducing his heartbeat to 34 beats per minute. This puts him in an elevated state of concentration:”When you are calm, you are more focused and make better decisions. The game moves fast, but it seems slow to you.”

At least at the free-throw line he proved this ability to concentrate immediately. As a rookie, he hit 88.3 percent of the line, currently even 91.4 percent (6th place in the league).

But Murray is also making progress in all other respects and has become accustomed to the NBA’s pace. In the summer the nuggets decided for him as a starter (Mudiay was even traded in the meantime) and although he had difficulties at the start, he has meanwhile paid back the trust.

Since the beginning of December, Murray has been running hot and sunk a whopping 44.7 percent from outside (No. 3 in the NBA), with an average of 17.8 points. For a nominal single player, his 3.1 assists per game are few, but this is largely due to his role in the nuggets system.

With Nikola Jokic in the squad, Denver probably has the best passing-big-man in the league, who also has a reasonable threesome (37.2 percent). The Pick’ n’ Roll and Pick’ n’ Pop between Murray and the Joker is increasingly becoming an absolute weapon – and Murray is often called upon as an enforcer rather than a passport. This underlines its strengths all the more.

The figures show that something big can develop around this duo. Together with Murray and Jokic on the field, the nuggets have a net rating of +4.5, together with the recently recovered Paul Millsap even a rating of +10.9. Denver is currently ranked eighth in the fiercely contested Western Conference and is thus fully in the race for play-off places.

The team already has the potential to tickle the big players in the league. With the young trio of Murray, Jokic and Gary Harris, it could be possible to do even more in the next few years – if the team around them is strengthened and, above all, the more than just a hole in the defence is stabilised. Jokic is undoubtedly the most influential player in the system, but at the end of many close matches, the ball is likely to find Murray. This is exactly what he was prepared for.