‘He’ll never cease to amaze’: Jamal Murray’s high school coach says his basketball skills stood out from a young age

Tolly Henderson has coached lots of kids over the years, but he says Jamal Murray’s basketball skills and dedication to the sport stood out from a young age.

By Grade 9, Henderson said Murray was “well a head and shoulders above people his age” and he was “easily competing” with players who were in Grades 11 and 12.

So Henderson said it didn’t come as a surprise when Murray became the ninth Canadian to ever win the NBA championship on Monday night when his team, the Denver Nuggets, beat the Miami Heat in Game 5.

The final score was 94-89 for the Nuggets, giving Denver its first championship title in franchise history. Murray finished the night off with 14 points, eight assists and eight rebounds within 41 minutes of play.

“It doesn’t surprise me the things he does. He’ll never cease to amaze his old teammates, myself, people from Kitchener-Waterloo,” Henderson told CTV News in an interview.

“He just keeps getting better and I think there’s more to come.”

Henderson, who coached Murray when he was a student at Grand River Collegiate Institute in Kitchener, Ont., said Murray was always up early practising basketball in his high school years.

“His work ethic was kind of off the charts,” the coach said.

Now 26, Murray has become the fourth player to have averaged 20 or more points-per-game and ten or more assists-per-game in the finals, following in the footsteps of Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James.

It’s no small feat for Murray, who suffered a torn ACL injury last season and missed the entirety of the 2021-22 season, Henderson said.

That perseverance is what makes Murray an inspiration for people across Canada, the coach added.

“Jamal shows them day in and day out when you hit adversity, you just, you plow through it, that’s all you can do,” Henderson said.

“You can lay down and roll over, or you can just get up and fight and that’s what he’s about.”

As Murray continues to recover from his injury, Henderson said he can’t wait to see what’s in store next for the Canadian basketball star.

“I’m excited to see what he does next year.”  

With files from CTV National News Correspondent Heather Wright and CTV News Kitchener