"I know it's not an easy topic": Jamal Murray wants to have the difficult conversations

Jamal Murray decided to flip the script.

It was time for him to ask a question.

At the end of a 20-minute Zoom meeting Friday with Denver media where Murray discussed why he thinks the Nuggets can win the NBA championship this season, confirmed that his pick and roll partner Nikola Jokic has been hitting the gym so often that he has a “four pack,” and shared how the team has been dealing with the George Floyd murder and subsequent protests, he asked the media on the call if they have experienced racism in their lives.

Reporters shared stories and personal experiences where they or a family member had experienced racism

Then Murray shared his.

One instance occurred when Murray and his father Roger were making the hour-long drive to Orangeville Prep where Murray spent part of his high school career. Murray said a cop cut him and his dad off, and then as they were trying to pass him while going the speed limit, he heard the police car’s siren.

“What are the odds? We’re sitting there like, ‘If we pass him this is going to happen. Watch,'” Murray said. “I’m like, ‘OK.’ We pass him, guess what happens?”

The policeman said they had been tailgating.

Another occurred when Murray and his father were walking down the street at night following a basketball practice. Two cops randomly approached them and tried to perform a search. Roger asked the two cops why they wanted to search them.

“You guys fit the description of so and so,” Murray remembered the cops saying. “My dad was like, ‘Were they black?'”

“You could see them hesitate where they weren’t prepared for that question,” Murray said. “They just wanted to do what they do want to do and they wanted to use their force and they were looking for a reason, and it’s just like this stuff, the way they poke you and they want to make you react in a certain way so they can do what they want is so wrong. And it’s so blatant like I keep saying.”

It was an honest, thoughtful, and organic moment from Murray who was simply creating conversation around the issues which are currently shaping this country. He’s right. These aren’t the easiest conversations to have. But it’s imperative that we have them, especially between all races and ethnicities, like white, black, asian, and hispanic, all of which were represented on the call.

“Those are my couple of experiences. Thank you guys for sharing yours,” Murray said. “I know it’s not an easy topic and it’s something we’re going to have to get used to. But I appreciate you guys sharing that with me.”

The ongoing protests resulting from George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis on May 25 have been a constant source of conversations between Nuggets players, coaches and management, and the Nuggets organization has encouraged their players to continue to use their voice in these times.

Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly has been a fixture at the Colorado state capitol during the protests. Monte Morris, Gary Harris, and PJ Dozier have been among the players who have attended the rallies too. This week Michael Malone voiced his frustration that the subject of police brutality towards African Americans is discussed every couple of years but never leads to any meaningful change.

Malone also said that the Nuggets are working to set up a town hall with their players and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock along with the Denver police chief.

“(Cops) go through this training, they go through physicals, they go through combat training and techniques. I feel like they can’t wait to use everything that they’ve learned, everything they’ve been taught through the system,” Murray said. “They can’t wait to use that. They can’t wait to use their power on the people of the black community, people that they don’t really think matter. That’s why it’s Black Lives Matter. I just think they do stuff that’s so blatant. They poke you. They jab you. They try to intimidate you. They try to make you do stuff under duress, under emotion. And when people act a certain way they use it as their excuse to do something.”

Murray has stayed in Denver since mid-March when the NBA season was put on hold and was one of the first players to use the Nuggets’ practice court when it opened for individual voluntary player workouts a few weeks ago. Prior to that he fell back on the drills he used to practice at his house growing up, like ball handling in his basement or in the garage.

Murray has also passed the time by watching countless hours of film, sometimes replaying full games so he can examine the tempo and pace that he played with throughout all four quarters. He has gone over individual clips from this season too and specifically studied how he’s performed in pick-and-rolls between him and Jokic and him and Mason Plumlee.

But while we do know what the timeline is for the NBA to return and in a little over a month teams will be flying to Disney World to try and win a championship, Murray even admitted that the events of the last two weeks and how the community has rallied together make basketball feel much smaller.

There are difficult conversations that need to be had.

“I think what we’re doing now is great. I think we need to have our voices heard,” Murray said. “And I just think about all the stories I have growing up with my dad, how obvious it is. The stuff that the cops do, the stuff that happens. What bothers us in the black community is it’s so blatant. It’s blatant. That word is perfect. It’s so out in the open. If you can’t see it you’re part of the problem because it’s very obvious.”

“When something as blatant as this happens you can’t shut up. You can’t shut up and dribble. You can’t ignore it. You can’t just let it happen. It becomes frustrating.”