Paul Klee: Nuggets reflect on Jamal Murray's remarkable recovery to brink of NBA Finals: 'Hell, no. You are ours'

May 21—SANTA MONICA, Calif. — On the sun-splashed boardwalk outside the Nuggets' swanky team hotel, giggling kids dripped with saltwater and skateboarders zipped past in checkered Vans.

Jamal Murray's recovery from knee surgery was anything but a beach.

This corner of the planet holds special meaning to the Nuggets shooting star — good, bad and all the emotions in between. It was L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe hospital where Murray underwent a procedure to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left leg. And it was a 30-minute Uber away, at Crypto.com Arena, where Murray mean-mugged the Lakers to move the Nuggets one game from the NBA Finals and show the world the Blue Arrow is back, baby.

When it comes to Murray's rambunctious march through the Lakers, averaging 35 points in three games, "The first thing that comes to mind for me, Paul, is just a tremendous amount of pride," Michael Malone told me before the Nuggets meet the Lakers Monday night in Game 4.

Did you hear Malone's voice cracking and see his tears welling up after Murray blistered the Lakers with 30 first-half points in Game 3? Knowing Murray's journey, the emotions are real.

Athletes know athletes, and count his Nuggets teammates as Murray's biggest fans.

"It's beautiful to watch," veteran forward Jeff Green said Sunday, "Seeing the road that Jamal's been on the last couple of years."

Way back in 2016, prior to the NBA draft, I wrote the Nuggets should select Jamal Murray and Domantas Sabonis. Talk about a lucky guess. But I had heard stories from Murray's AAU coach, a man named Larry Blunt, who swore Murray had the cutthroat drive of Kobe Bryant. His past is littered with MVP awards in showcases that featured his age's top players. Take his MVP award at the 2015 Nike Hoop Summit, an event that had Jaylen Brown, Jalen Brunson and Brandon Ingram as headliners.

But you never know until you know.

Now you know.

While no one's elevating Murray to the late Mamba's level, a cutthroat drive is as evident in a person's recovery from surgery as it is in a Western Conference final in a house Kobe built.

These NBA contracts are guaranteed money, you know, so the motivation must come from within.

Shoot, I wouldn't bet against this Murray in a game of HORSE, much less in a playoff series.

"You need 16 wins to win a championship, and we've got five more to go," Murray said.

And could it be that Kroenke Sports & Entertainment's vast sports empire was a bonus for this Nuggets operation? As Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke mingled with the rich and famous on the court prior to Game 3, I wondered if the Kroenkes' portfolio afforded patience to the likes of Malone, Murray and Nikola Jokic as the founders progressed to where they are now.

If Nuggets ownership only owned the Nuggets, and not the Avalanche, Arsenal and L.A. Rams, perhaps there would have been a greater sense of urgency to move things along quickly.

You know, pull the trigger on a seismic trade, the go-to move for NBA franchises these days.

Or replace Malone after a pair of playoff exits when the Nuggets were missing key players.

Patience has been the Nuggets' greatest virtue.

"It's not just coaching. It's relationships where you love guys," Malone told me on Sunday. "So to see Jamal playing at the level he's playing at, taking advantage of the opportunity on this stage, it's just a tremendous amount of pride. I'm just so happy for him because of everything he's had to go through to get to this point."

Consider the day after Murray's devastating knee injury in a game at Golden State on April 12, 2021. On a bus ride to the team plane, the 23-year-old broke down asking his only NBA head coach a heartbreaking question: "Are you going to trade me? I'm damaged goods."

"He had tears in his eyes," Malone said.

Malone hugged the young man.

"Hell, no," Malone told him. "You are ours."