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Denver star Jamal Murray sheds tears in emotional moment after Nuggets win NBA Championship

Nick Profile Picby:Nick Geddes•06/12/23•

NickGeddesNews

Nuggets
(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

Denver Nuggets star guard Jamal Murray couldn’t help but be moved to tears as he lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy as an NBA champion.

The Nuggets’ 94-89 Game 5 victory over the Miami Heat Monday was the culmination of a long road back for Murray, who missed out on Denver’s previous two postseason runs recovering from a torn ACL.

“It’s long before we made it here that I thought this was going to happen,” Murray said, via ESPN. “I had a belief of being in the playoffs before. Having the experience, seeing the team and the chemistry grow, having the same core my whole career, that’s when I saw it. That’s when I believed it.

“To be here just kind of rounds it out. And shows that when we are given the right circumstances and everybody healthy, God willing, we can do it. I think when we’re playing our best basketball, we are a very hard team to stop.”

Not only did Murray return this season, but he transformed himself into a completely different player. While Nikola Jokic grabbed the headlines — and rightfully so — Murray proved to be just as important to Denver winning its first championship in its 47-year existence.

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He averaged 26.7 points, 7.1 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game during the postseason run. His Finals performance was highlighted by the 34-point, 10-assist and 10-rebound showing in the Nuggets’ 109-94 victory in Game 3. The Kitchener, Ontario native is just the ninth Canadian to win an NBA title.

Nikola Jokic takes home Finals MVP after Nuggets’ Game 5 victory

As they were throughout the season, the Nuggets were led by star center Nikola Jokic. The two-time MVP scored 28 points on 12-of-15 from the field with 16 rebounds and four assists.

Following the victory, NBA commissioner Adam Silver presented Jokic with the Bill Russell Finals MVP trophy. Jokic, the 41st overall selection in the 2014 NBA Draft, becomes the lowest drafted player to win Finals MVP. The Serbian joins Giannis Antetokounmpo, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players born overseas to take home the Finals’ best player award, per ESPN.

“It feels good — it’s good,” Jokic told Lisa Salters of ESPN after the game. “We got the job done so now we can go home.”