Can Jamal Murray help Canada make the Olympics?
NBA champion expected to play in this summer's Basketball World Cup
This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.
For the second year in a row, a key Canadian sidekick has helped an all-time great win an NBA championship. Last June, versatile Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins played a critical role in Steph Curry's fourth title. This time, Denver Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray played the Robin to Nikola Jokic's Batman as he and the two-time MVP captured their first Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Jokic capped one of the most impressive playoff runs in history last night by scoring 28 points, with 16 rebounds and four assists to lead the Nuggets to a gritty 94-89 win over Miami that delivered Denver its first NBA title in a tidy five games. The near-seven-foot Serbian centre with the soul of a point guard was the obvious choice for Finals MVP after nearly averaging a triple-double for the entire playoffs — 30 points, 13.5 rebounds and 9.5 assists.
But even the best player in the world (a title that now unquestionably belongs to Jokic) needs help to win a championship, and that's where Murray comes in. It's no accident that Jokic's deepest previous playoff run coincided with Murray's breakthrough performance in 2020, when the 23-year-old from Kitchener, Ont., exploded for a pair of 50-point games and two others with at least 40 as Denver reached the final four in the Disney World bubble. After Murray blew out his knee the following April and missed the next two post-seasons, Jokic and the Nuggets won a total of one series.
The knee injury kept Murray out for the entire 2021-22 season, and he spent much of his comeback campaign playing his way back into form. Though he averaged a career-high 6.2 assists, Murray's scoring rate dipped slightly, to an even 20 points, as the Nuggets managed his workload. Still, Murray's return clearly made an impact as Denver improved by five wins, won its first division title since (you guessed it) 2020 and finished with the best record in the Western Conference.
WATCH | Canada's Murray becomes NBA champion as Nuggets knock off Heat:
That turned out to be just a taste of what was to come in the playoffs. With the load-management shackles off, Murray averaged a team-high 40 minutes per game and ranked second on the team behind Jokic in both points (a Canadian playoff record 26.1) and assists (7.1). He also showed he was not afraid to take the shot in the most pressure-packed moments — a vital trait when you're playing alongside one of the best-passing big men of all time.
More importantly, Murray's increased production elevated his team. Denver went a stunning 16-4 in the playoffs, including 8-1 over the final two rounds.
On the heels of these impressive championship runs by Murray and Wiggins, the question on the minds of many Canadian basketball fans is: can these guys get our men's national team into the Olympics? That hasn't happened since the great Steve Nash carried his squad to the quarterfinals in 2000 in Sydney. But the stars seem to be aligning for Canada to qualify for the 2024 Games in Paris — perhaps as soon as this summer.
WATCH | Canada's Murray overcome with emotion after winning title:
Two Olympic berths earmarked for teams from Canada's region, the Americas, will be up for grabs at the Basketball World Cup in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, starting in late August. Go ahead and pencil in the United States for one of those, but there's no reason why Canada can't win the other. Head coach Nick Nurse has secured commitments from around a dozen NBA players, including Murray, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, R.J. Barrett and Lu Dort. Wiggins didn't sign on, but he still might be persuaded to play.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about Canada's projected World Cup roster is that neither Murray nor Wiggins would be its best player. That's Gilgeous-Alexander, the 24-year-old rising star for the Oklahoma City Thunder who placed fifth in NBA MVP voting this season after averaging 31.4 points — fourth-most in the league. Yes, Murray and SGA are both point guards, so they wouldn't complement each other as well as Murray and Jokic do. But both are talented (and smart and unselfish) enough to adapt their games. If Wiggins joins, that's quite the Big Three.
To advance past the first round, Canada will need to finish in the top two of a four-team group with Latvia, Lebanon and France, which took Olympic silver in 2021 and could be adding NBA super-prospect Victor Wembanyama to its roster. Then comes a second, smaller round of group play from which the top two from each of four divisions advance to the knockout stage.
If the Canadian men don't secure an Olympic spot at the World Cup, they can still get in by winning a last-minute qualifying tournament next year. That path led to ruin two years ago when a Wiggins-fronted team lost to the Czech Republic in the semifinals of their qualifier in Victoria.
Ideally, Canada won't have to sweat a last-chance tournament this time. And, after another championship performance by a Canadian NBA star, that's more than just a hope.
