LILLE, France — It was late at night or early in the morning when one of France’s many sports channels had a program with nothing but Jamal Murray highlights.
There was crazy backwards shots and dunks off crashing the boards and turnaround fallaway jumpers that looked almost Kobe Bryant-like.
“What channel was that on?” Murray asked when told of the program. “I want to go watch that.”
He loves that part of the game, being a showboat, an entertainer, a mesmerizing talent doing what few can manage.
“That’s what inspires you,” Murray said in a 1-on-1 interview Thursday. “That gives amazing confidence to yourself. That’s what inspired me watching Vince Carter or Derrick Rose or a few others I can name.”
That’s what’s been missing from Murray through two games, two wins, at the Summer Olympic men’s basketball tournament. He started one game, came off the bench in another, didn’t necessarily look all that highlight reel comfortable either night but he’s not keeping score here.
Not his score anyhow.
The highlight he’s interested in here is celebrating a gold medal win. He has an NBA championship with the Denver Nuggets. He knows what that feeling is all about He was a giant contributor to the Nuggets win in 2023. He intrinsically understands victory, NBA style, and winning Olympic style, and no matter how much he has accomplished individually, how many impossible shots he’s made, how his playoff numbers are off the charts, the kid from Kitchener isn’t counting his own points, his own minutes played, his own jumpers hit.
He’s counted as high as two right now. That’s all. Team Canada has two wins in the Olympic tournament. The third game is Friday against Spain. The number he wants is six. Three wins in the round robin. Three wins in the playoff round when the tournament moves to Paris.
Six wins means a gold medal.
“It’s all about getting the wins,” said Murray. “It’s not about your night. It’s not my night or whose night it happens to be. What matters is what’s the score is at the end. That’s why it’s so much fun. We’ve got some of the best players from the nation and you just want to win. However you do it, you do it.
“We have a lot of weapons on and off the bench. But as long as you get the win, the rest goes out the window.”
Through two wins, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the expected one, has been an impressive scorer and RJ Barrett has surprisingly led Team Canada in scoring.
And more surprising than either of those things is how little Murray has scored or how little Murray has impacted the games with his usual flare thus far.
If he’s concerned about his Olympic play to date, he doesn’t show it. The wins are what matters. The glory, he said, will come from the wins.
“Everybody here is talented and everybody has a speciality they bring to the game,” said Murray. “You’re only here for six games. If you’re worried about what your role is or where you fit in, we might as well get someone else for those six games.
“We’re all trying to get gold for each other and for Canada.”
If Canadian coach Jordi Fernandez is the least bit disappointed in Murray through two wins, he’s not saying so. He actually saying the opposite.
“These guys understand it’s not about them individually,” said Fernandez. “Jamal is one of the best players in the NBA and he’s one of the best players in the world and right now he’s just helping this team big time win two games.
“I need Jamal to have his best game at the right time. Right now (with us) this is who Jamal is. Jamal is selfless. Jamal is a real smart basketball player. I don’t worry about Jamal.
“Last game he ended up with five assists and zero turnovers. I don’t know what people might be saying or thinking about what he’s doing. I don’t pay attention to that.”
Murray has just 13 points in two games — Barrett has 47. When the Nuggets won the NBA title in 2023, Murray averaged 26 points a game — but in the last two games of the NBA Finals he scored only 29 total points, adding a series high 20 assists.
Doing whatever he needed to do to defeat the Miami Heat in just five games.
What matters about the game Friday against Spain is two-fold. It starts with the win. But point differential could also factor in determining where Team Canada will be seeded in the playoff pool.
The goal is to be Top 2 overall from the round robin. That way Canada avoids playing the United States in either a quarter-final or semi-final match. That’s the meaning Murray is seeking here. He’s the only current Team Canada player to have won an NBA championship.
“I don’t know if you can compare one with the other,” said Murray. “They’re both big and they both matter.” And then he didn’t finish the sentence.
And he wants both. Whether he’s the star or not. Profile doesn’t matter right now for a high flyer who doesn’t care to make the highlight reels right now. Gold, that’s all that matters here. All he wants is gold.