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“These shoes give me life. Even though these people are gone, they give me life.”
That was Jamal Murray, star guard for the Denver Nuggets after scoring 50 points and leading his team to a playoff victory over the Utah Jazz on Sunday. An emotional Murray took a moment after Sunday’s game to draw attention to his shoes.
Murray had custom shoes made with a picture of George Floyd on his right shoe, and a picture of Breonna Taylor on his left shoe. Floyd and Taylor were Black Americans killed by police officers in 2020.
“I just want to win… in life you find things that hold value to you, find things to fight for, and we found things worth fighting for in the NBA as a collective unit.”
Murray has had an impressive playoff series, averaging 34 points per game, and forcing a game seven against the Jazz on Tuesday.
Denver Nuggets’ Jamal Murray reacts after making a 3-pointer against the Utah Jazz.
Associated Press
The comments from Murray come after the Milwaukee Bucks decided to “strike” and not take the floor for their playoff game last week to protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. Several other NBA teams followed the Bucks and protested playoff games for three days.
Athletes have been vocal about their opposition to violent police actions against people of color, with the NBA being one of the sports league’s most willing to comment on such situations. The words “Black Lives Matter” are written in the middle of the courts the NBA is using during its season restart in the Wide World of Sports Complex in Disney DIS, -2.46% World.
