Jamal Murray had just poured in a career-high 30 points in an early April victory over the Pelicans, the strains and tears in his core muscles unable to stop the rookie guard from beating a path to the basket.
His coach marveled afterward about the ability of the 20-year-old to play through nagging pain that would pull most players out of their uniforms and into suit jackets.
“I don’t think our fans or probably even (the media) know how much pain he’s in,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said of Murray that day. “He’s dealing with a lot of stuff.”
So as Murray dressed at his locker, the question was obvious: “How are you able to play through so much pain?”
“I’m great,” Murray insisted. “I feel no pain.”
It would have been easy to label the statement lip service. After all, Murray would have surgery three weeks later to address two sports hernias that had plagued him all season. But doing so would be to ignore the meticulous path of preparation Murray and his father, Roger, have constructed for more than two decades, a vision hatched before Murray was even born.
As the first anniversary of Murray being drafted by the Nuggets approaches, the story of a rookie season that portends so much promise begins with a father-son bond built on an intense focus on mental strength. Murray is not immune to pain. Instead, he has learned, with his father’s help, how to play above it. And perhaps never did those lessons permeate more than during his first season as a professional.
“I know that if I go through certain things, there is going to be pain,” said Murray, the only Nuggets player to participate in all 82 games last season. “But I wasn’t trying to put that on my head. I would call my dad before every game, he’d ask me how it was and I’d tell him exactly how I felt. Then it got right back to basketball and he’d tell me what to do. It wasn’t like I was saying, ‘I’m feeling this or I’m feeling that.’ I just told myself, ‘I’m fine. I can play through it and I can do the same stuff I could do if I was healthy.’ ”
“Mind over matter”
Jamal Murray began cracking a smile. Back home in Kitchener, Ontario, the boy had followed his dad to gyms from the time he was in a stroller, drinking from his bottle while he watched grown men burst back and forth across the court.
Now he was 7 and was thrown into games against players nearly twice his age. But the toughest competition always came when the other kids had left and Murray was left to be tested by his father.
“In the early days, we used to always work on his form with free throws and jump shots,” said Roger Murray, who describes his relationship with Jamal as father, coach, trainer and friend. “So he’d be at the free-throw line and would sometimes get frustrated because he wouldn’t make a shot. I told him he had to make 30 in a row. So he’s 7 years old and he has to make 30 in a row. There’s some frustration and some pressure.”
As Jamal hit 10 and then 15 in a row, he let a smile grow across his face. But then, with one miss, he would be back to square one. Thirty more free throws to go. Frustration settled in.
“Refocus,” Roger would tell his son. “Relax.”
Finally, after the counter reset time and time again, Jamal made 30 in a row. Then, the 7-year-old nailed five more in a row for good measure.
“For me,” Roger said, “it was proving to him that he could do it, that it was mind over matter.”
Roger, who was born in Jamaica before moving to Canada, was fascinated as he grew up by Bruce Lee, the martial artist, actor and philosopher whose approach to building mental strength provided a blueprint for Roger’s approach to fatherhood.
“I saw him as almost superhuman,” Roger said. “I watched how he approaches things mentally, how committed he was to things he wanted to do. He would never give up and never put any blocks in the way to stop him from whatever he was trying to do.
Whatever my boy wants to do, Roger promised, I’m going to help him be the very best at it.
“It happened to be basketball that he loved,” Roger said.
The intense focus Murray’s father applied to his development has been well-chronicled. Murray bypassed TV and time at the mall to simply run up a hill or jog around the block. He didn’t know boredom. He could always create an outlet for himself. As he grew, meditation became a part of the equation for Murray, his father stressing the importance of finding a place to focus the mind before games.
Murray attacked basketball with every ounce of energy he had. At times, his father hid the ball to prevent him from playing just so he could get some rest. The attempts were often futile. But there also was always an ease to basketball for Murray, from his high school domination to his brilliant freshman season at Kentucky. His first year as a professional offered different challenges that forced Murray to re-examine the lessons of a father who knew adversity was around the corner — and also knew he had prepared his son to face it.
“The bigger picture”
It didn’t make any sense to Murray. He had prepared with more intensity than most players at even the elite NBA level. Yet here he was, beginning his professional basketball career, and he couldn’t make a shot.
“At the beginning of the season I got caught overthinking,” Murray said. “It’s the game of basketball and I’ve just got to play. I got caught thinking too much and not shooting the right shots or not making the plays that are open. The rough start was overthinking and trying to do too much.”
Murray missed the first 17 shots of his NBA career. Roger felt for his son as each attempt refused to fall through the net, but a bigger picture was emerging in his mind. The mental preparation he helped his son develop was about to be tested.
“Although it was a little difficult seeing what was happening, in the bigger picture I actually loved that it could happen like that,” Roger said. “That was good for ‘J’ to have happen to him, and it was part of his own growth so he knows what to do to get better and what can happen when you do certain things with your focus. That was something that probably had to happen to him so that he could have his own growth, personally.”
Murray bounced out of the slump to hit four 3-pointers in roughly 30 seconds in a game against Portland. He scored 30 points and was named MVP of the Rising Stars Challenge during All-Star Weekend. He started six of Denver’s final seven games, averaging 15.1 points and five assists. Two weeks after the season, Murray had surgery. He was back in the gym six days later, working the battle ropes inside the Pepsi Center.
“I’m just trying to get my body stronger in every way,” he said. “It’s been a real focus of mine. Every day I’ve been going at it. It’s been a lot of fun, too. I’m going to just keep doing what I’m doing and see it pay off.”
Roger will connect daily as Murray enters a second season with high expectations. For this father and son, the path to mental domination is never waged alone.
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