Jamal Murray Reveals His Secret Motivation for Epic Playoff Duel With Donovan Mitchell

Today, Denver Nuggets guard, Jamal Murray joined the season premiere episode of the Knuckleheads Podcast with Darius Miles & Quentin Richardson, to discuss his path to the league coming out of Kitchener, Ontario, reflect on his epic playoff duel with Utah’s Donavan Mitchell, and uncover the secret personal motivation behind his team’s memorable playoff run.

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During the episode, Jamal also goes on to share how he was surprised to be picked by the Nuggets at #7 during the 2016 NBA draft after not working out for them, and imagine what a backcourt combo of himself and Devin Booker would look like had the Phoenix Suns not picked Dragan Bender instead.

• Jamal Murray on the first person to “Bust his ass” in the league (2:17):
  “John Wall man! We played at Washington and he would let me drive by him and poke the ball from behind.  I think I had 8 turnovers that game, bro…He didn’t even move, he just kept stealing the ball from me and getting run out dunks.”

• Jamal reveals he was surprised to be picked by the Denver Nuggets (14:58)
  “I only worked out for Boston, Phoenix, New Orleans, and Minnesota.  I didn’t even work out for Denver…They took Jaylen Brown in Boston…They took Dragan Bender in Phoenix so it could have been me and [Devin] Booker in the backcourt…Then the Pelicans took Buddy [Hield], so that’s when I was like where am I going??”

• On the secret motivation to the Nuggets Bubble success (22:25):
  “I did not want to pack!   I was procrastinating packing the whole time and I was looking at my room like if we lose this game I gotta pack this whole room up!… We won Game 5 and I just kept that routine”.

• Murray vs. Mitchell (24:10)
  “We couldn’t get a stop.  That’s the biggest thing!….We just couldn’t stop each other and it was crazy.”

You can also check out the full episode below:

Murray versus Mitchell was an instant classic playoff series. The NBA’s future is bright.

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