A gaggle of early arrivers scattered throughout the lower bowl of Ball Arena on Sunday shouted their words of support at Jamal Murray as he trotted out to the court. He took a moment to acknowledge the diehards with a wave before launching into his pregame shooting routine. He found Nuggets executive Jon Wallace, who challenged him six years ago to make an NBA All-Star Game when both were relative upstarts at their respective jobs, and shared a quick embrace.
Box checked, all these years later.
A grateful Murray tried to take in the moment after being named an All-Star for the first time in his career. An off night against Thunder didn’t help, but the longtime Nuggets point guard still spent time reflecting on the accolade after Denver’s 121-111 loss at Ball Arena. He also set his sights on a loftier goal that’ll require him to sustain his productivity for another two months.
“I feel good. I’m honestly just really happy for my dad,” Murray said. “He really wanted me to make it. He was telling me all summer how much he wanted me to make it. To be here now is nice. But I want to be All-NBA. I feel like that’s a bigger, I don’t know what you call it, award. I feel like that’s something that you do all year, and your play shows all year into the playoffs and all that. So I’ve just gotta stay hungry and just kind of accept this. It was great, and onto the next one.”
Keeler: Nuggets got cute. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cason Wallace, Thunder punched them in the mouth
Even the league's most reluctant annual participant in All-Star weekend congratulated Murray before the game Sunday. Nikola Jokic will have a Denver teammate join him at the event for the first time in his eight trips. That was worth celebrating, if only because it was a form of validation for how the Nuggets performed without Jokic in January.
"We both make each other's game better and easier. So I wouldn't change him. I wouldn't change him for anybody," Jokic said, showing a sentimental side that he doesn't always like to offer publicly. "Whenever I say who's my 'top five' (teammates) of my career, well, he's definitely No. 1."
He's made the "top five" claim several times in reference to Aaron Gordon, Denver's other core piece, who might've been vying for an All-Star spot himself early this season before injuries took over his attention. The bond between Jokic and Murray dates back, of course, to their shared minutes off the bench when the Nuggets were rebuilding around draft picks like them. They've played 536 games together now, spanning a decade.
"I don't think we've ever argued," Murray said. "It's cool just to have that relationship. And I know what the game is going to be like. I have his back, and he has my back, and we just go out there and play hard. So it's fun to have that kind of relationship with the greatest player in the world."
"One guy's always mad and one guy's not," Jokic joked, "so we balance each other."
Unlike Jokic, Murray intends to play hard in Los Angeles on Feb. 15. They'll be teammates in a tournament-style clash between international and U.S.-born All-Stars, the league's latest attempt to find a format that'll be taken seriously. Will the Nuggets' patented two-man game make an appearance? "That'd be interesting," Murray said, smiling. "That'd be fun." He doesn't have any strong opinions about the new format. All he knows is that he doesn't want to mail it in.
"I really kind of lost interest in the All-Star (recently), just watching whatever they're doing out there," he said. "It's just like, I'd rather go on vacation if that's the basketball we're gonna be playing. I'm down to play 1-on-1. I don't care. I'm just a competitor, right? So I would like to play. I know (Victor) Wembanyama will play. I know Giannis (Antetokounmpo) will play, if he were to (be healthy enough). So I just want to be one of those guys that's known as somebody who's gonna play hard every time he steps on the court. And not just half-(expletive) it."
In spite of that idealistic perspective on the event itself, the way Murray learned about the accolade was a bit more blasé.
He was pretty confident he would make the cut by the time NBC started revealing the seven Western Conference reserves Sunday afternoon.
So he didn't bother planning his day around the reveal. After all, it conflicted with his pregame nap.
A couple of childhood friends from Canada woke him up with a FaceTime call to deliver the news officially.
"I was a little in and out," Murray said.
His mind had already moved on to All-NBA ambitions.
Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.