Back on April 12, 2021, Jamal Murray’s spectacular season suddenly came to a halt.
Playing against the Warriors at Chase Center, the rising star from the Denver Nuggets drove to the basket in a seven-point game with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter. As he tried to gather for a layup in traffic, Murray’s left knee buckled and he fell to the floor, where he stayed for a couple minutes in pain. The 24-year-old needed assistance leaving the floor and later learned he suffered a torn ACL.
Murray's 2022 comeback appears to be close. According to The Athletic's Sam Amick, the Nuggets are expecting Murray and Michael Porter Jr. (back surgery) to return in time for the playoffs. Murray spoke to Complex’s Adam Caparell recently about his rehab and shared an anecdote about the night he got injured, involving Klay Thompson.
COMPLEX: Is there an individual who gave you a lesson or pointer that’s really stuck with you throughout the process?
MURRAY: Everybody talked to me. It’s hard to name one. I had Zach [LaVine] talk to me. I had Dejounte [Murray] talk to me. I talked to [Victor] Oladipo. Spencer Dinwiddie. I could go on. But when I first tore it in Golden State, Klay Thompson came into the X-ray room—obviously they couldn’t tell from the X-ray, but that’s where I found out it could be the ACL—and he was just giving me advice on where he’s coming from and how long it’s been since he played and what to look forward to and how he managed it. It was the first day that it happened so I was listening to him, but it didn’t register because I was upset. Now that I look back at it, man, what he said and where he was before he came back, kind of gave me perspective. I’ll get there. I just have to be patient and put the work in now so it’ll show later.
Klay’s a real one for that.
At the time, Thompson was five months deep into his recovery from an Achilles tear, following a year-long recovery from ACL tear in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals. If there was someone who could relate, it was Thompson. Klay eventually endured a 941-day layoff before returning to the game action on Jan. 9.
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You have to wonder how good the Nuggets could have been last year if Murray didn’t get hurt. The springy wing was in the midst of a special season alongside eventual MVP Nikola Jokic. In 58 games, Murray averaged 21.2 points, 4.8 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game and 2.7 3-pointers. His campaign also included a 50-point game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
With Murray and MPJ, The Nuggets could be a major problem at full strength come playoff time.
