Nuggets legends see NBA All-Star Jamal Murray as one of them: ‘He could easily have been Batman’
The Nuggets forefathers witnessed him before the rest of Denver, as if it was meant to be that Jamal Murray would become one of them.
Alex English remembers seeing a Canadian high school guard play at an event alongside other blue-chip prospects. Murray “outshined everybody.” The all-time leading scorer of the Nuggets was confident he was watching a future NBA star. “I can’t remember all the other players,” English said, “but I remember Jamal Murray.”
Dan Issel watches his Kentucky Wildcats religiously, so he had familiarized himself with Murray’s burgeoning talent months before Denver drafted him seventh overall in 2016. He beamed at the pick. At the renewal of the Kentucky-to-Denver pipeline. “That makes him special in my eyes,” Issel says. “… It’s kind of difficult, but I follow most of the former UK players in the NBA. I don’t watch (the rest of) them every night like I try to with Jamal.”
Nikola Jokic met him at the 2014 Nike Hoop Summit in Oregon. They were teammates in a showcase pitting top U.S. high schoolers against international prospects. They didn’t talk much. Maybe that made it a fitting prologue to their eventual basketball partnership. More than a decade later, their chemistry is best described by Murray as telepathic, intellectual, instinctual.
“I think of friendship, a relationship, symmetry, an unspoken communication,” he said last week. “It’s cool. It’s really cool, honestly. It’s one of the things I cherish, being in Denver and having (him) to play with.”
Murray is ascending into the same airspace as English and Issel and the other Nuggets greats. He’ll check another box on the career bucket list Sunday, when he plays in his first NBA All-Star Game a decade after entering the league. As it was when they first met, he and Jokic will be teammates in a game of the United States vs. The World.
“They’re like the perfect Batman and Robin duo in the NBA,” English said. “I don’t know if there’s another couple as successful as they’ve been.”
Jamal Murray (27) of the Denver Nuggets draws a foul from Scotty Pippen Jr. (1) of the Memphis Grizzlies during the second quarter at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
All-Star recognition ‘past due’
It’s an unusual anointment for Murray. It doesn’t represent anything the basketball community didn’t already know about him. His high-end ability has materialized in moments far more consequential than the two-month window of regular-season games used to canonize All-Stars. It has also slipped away in smaller measures, enough to christen him as the best player never named an All-Star until now. The moniker was starting to get worn out.
For him to get over the hump this weekend is not a profound revelation. In the context of Murray’s league-wide reputation, this occasion represents more of a starting gun for the individual accolades to play catch-up.
“It’s past due,” English said. “I mean, this kid has been playing great basketball for four or five years. It’s not like he just started. And I think he got the brunt of having a superstar like Jokic playing with him. … He’s been the sidekick. He’s been the Batman sidekick, and hasn’t gotten the accolades he has overwhelmingly deserved, honestly. But this man’s been an All-Star a long time.”
Retired Denver Nuggets forward Alex English, left, is welcomed to the court by team mascot Rocky the mountain lion during the team’s 50th anniversary celebration before the second half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Aside from correcting the record, Murray’s moment this weekend is an opportunity to take stock of his status in Nuggets history. The Denver Post asked their three all-time leading scorers — English, Jokic and Issel — for their perspectives. Franchise legends, both past and present, are ready to welcome him to the inner circle already.
“He’s definitely made a mark in this organization,” Jokic said. “He’s gone through a lot. He was injured. Championship. Now All-Star, after so many years that he was so close. So it’s good that the franchise still loves him and the fans love him.”
As he landed in Los Angeles for the weekend, Murray ranked sixth in scoring (10,909 points). Fifth in assists (2,889). Seventh in games played (586). Sixth in minutes (18,576). He’s long since ran away with the franchise record for 3-pointers (1,304). He remains tied for first in rings (one).
Six former players have their jersey numbers retired by the team and immortalized at Ball Arena. It’s a small club that comprises the texture of a 59-year-old franchise. English and Issel. David Thompson and Dikembe Mutombo. Fat Lever and Byron Beck. Jokic’s No. 15 will be the seventh (whether or not Carmelo Anthony is eventually recognized for wearing the same number). English believes Murray’s No. 27 is also a lock to join them all in the rafters — even if he retired today.
“He’s already there,” the 72-year-old English said. “Who else can you think of other than Jokic that should be there, other than Jamal Murray? … Jamal Murray certainly should be in that same group. He’s been good his whole career. It’s been a steady growth. He’s bona fide.”
“There are numbers up there that aren’t in that category (statistically),” Issel added. “So it makes sense that when his career is over, (his should be). And the other thing is, I love how loyal he is to the Nuggets. It seems like a lot of these players are just mercenaries today that go where they can make the most money and get the most exposure. He seems to be very happy being a Denver Nugget.”
The franchise’s elder statesmen understand that Jokic is an inextricable aspect of any conversation about Murray’s developing legacy. His secondary role makes him tricky to categorize. It lends itself to conjecture about how a team would perform with Murray as the main event. There was barely any evidence to support either conclusion until last month, when a knee injury caused Jokic to sit out a month, the longest absence of his NBA career. Issel — a former Nuggets player, coach and executive — was watching closely. Denver went 10-6 without the most accomplished player in franchise history.
Jamal Murray (27) of the Denver Nuggets reacts to a foul call during the first quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Ball Arena in Denver on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
“He should have been an All-Star before now, but I think part of the explanation is that he’s playing with the greatest player on the planet,” Issel said. “And I think that usurps, sometimes, what a great player he is. But when he needs to, he also steps up. … I don’t know that they’d be a championship-caliber team — it would depend who else was with Jamal — but I think he would be very successful if he was on a team where he was the No. 1 scoring option.”
English is reminded of Lever. His Murray. Lever ranks 13th in NBA history with 43 career triple-doubles, but the point guard hadn’t been named an All-Star five years into his career. English was the face of the franchise, a perennial awards candidate throughout the 1980s. “He had to play with me,” English remembers self-deprecatingly, “and they figured, ‘Well, we can’t have two Denver Nuggets guys on the All-Star team.’ And then one year, I petitioned and said I’d give up my spot for Fat Lever because he deserves it. The next year, he made it.”
Lever played with the Nuggets for six seasons. His No. 12 is one of the six retired numbers at Ball Arena today. The comparison feels resonant to English because he sees a star equally willing to sacrifice when he watches Murray.
“He understands that to be a winner, you have to be a team, and he has fit into that Robin role, like I said,” English said. “… He has fit in it well. He could easily have been Batman. But Jokic is such a big presence on the court with his style of play. But if you look at when the Nuggets win, Jamal Murray had to be there.”
The defining moments of the Jokic era have a funny way of placing Murray centerstage. He’s responsible for the first playoff buzzer-beater in franchise history, a shot over future Hall of Famer Anthony Davis. A defensive stop against LeBron James to clinch the Western Conference title. A 50-point season-saving Game 6. A 30-point triple-double to match Jokic in the NBA Finals.
“We weren’t very good to start,” Murray reflected last week. “We both came off the bench together. That really was him and Gary (Harris) that started the two-man game and handoffs and stuff. And then just to have that relationship the whole time, no problems. I don’t think we’ve ever argued. 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.”
Jokic’s penchant for introspection is notoriously understated — his entire public persona is — but as he fielded questions about Murray ahead of their couples trip to All-Star weekend, he shared a revealing insight about the guard’s significance to both him and, by extension, Denver. One that even left behind a note of sentimentality.
Would Batman like to play out his entire career with Robin?
“I would love it,” Jokic said, “just because it’s so good when you know who you’re playing with. He cannot really surprise me. I know what he can do. So the experience of playing probably 10 years definitely helps. But I don’t want to change him, if they ask me.”
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