Denver, CO

Nuggets’ Jamal Murray on missing NBA All-Star Game again: “I think you guys have seen me play at a pretty high level”

Published

4 months ago

February 5, 2024

Nuggets’ Jamal Murray on missing NBA All-Star Game again: “I think you guys have seen me play at a pretty high level”

In recent years and especially since his prolific NBA Finals output last summer, Jamal Murray has steadily taken up a mantle that sounds like a backhanded compliment.

He’s considered the NBA’s best, or at least most accomplished, player to never be named an All-Star.

The Nuggets point guard, after missing the cut again in his seventh healthy season as a pro, was asked Sunday whether it’s motivational at this point.

“Yeah, of course, but there’s multiple players in the league that should be All-Stars (who aren’t), you know what I’m saying?” Murray said. “(De’Aaron) Fox wasn’t an All-Star. There’s somebody else. Trae (Young) wasn’t an All-Star. So … what do you want me to do now? I think you guys have seen me play at a pretty high level against those same guys who are All-Stars.”

Murray is averaging 21 points (a hair off his career high), 6.6 assists (a career high) and 1.9 turnovers (fewest since his rookie year) per game this season. His 26.7% usage rate is higher than ever, and his shooting splits are on pace to rival his outstanding 2020-21 season for the best of his career: 47.1% from the field, 40.6% from 3-point range and 85.4% from the foul line.

“I mean, it’s every year,” said Nikola Jokic, who was named to his sixth consecutive All-Star Game. “… I feel, or we feel, that he’s supposed to be (an All-Star). But maybe that’s just us.”

As Murray pointed out himself, however, it was a crowded group of players fighting for spots. He is currently 11th in scoring among Western Conference guards, and the current parameters call for only 12 total players per conference. Sacramento’s Fox missed an invite to Indianapolis despite averaging 27.5 points and shooting a career-high 38% from three. His true shooting percentage beats Murray’s by a hair as of Sunday night (57.8% to 57.7%).

“Last year, I felt Aaron Gordon had a great case to be on the All-Star team, and this year I felt that Jamal Murray had a great case to be an All-Star. But that wasn’t the case. And I feel for Jamal,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “But in a weird way, he may not be an All-Star, but to me he’s a superstar. He’s a world champion. And he’s done things in the playoffs that a lot of All-Stars have never and will never do. And that’s one thing no one can ever take from Jamal Murray. … What I love about Jamal is he’s a team player, and he’d much rather help this team win a back-to-back championship over being named an All-Star.”

If any one factor inhibited Murray this season from beating out his statistically similar contemporaries for a reserve spot (Paul George, 22.9 points on 46.4/41.2/90.9% shooting), it was likely games played. Murray has appeared in only 37 of Denver’s first 51, having missed November with an ankle injury. It was an early setback in the pursuit of individual accolades that Murray evidently hasn’t been able to overcome despite his impressive numbers.

Malone took exception to lack of availability being a valid reason for exclusion.

“The thing you read is, ‘Oh, he didn’t play enough games to be an All-Star,’ and all these different kind of diatribes about why guys don’t make it,” Malone said. “‘Well, he’s on a losing team. Well, he didn’t play enough games.’ I think it’s all B.S. Plenty of guys make it on losing teams. Plenty of guys make it that have missed games. And whether Jamal uses that as motivation or not, we’ll see. But I think he’s motivated in just helping this team win.”

The paradox with Murray is his playoff pedigree. On the biggest stages of his career, the 26-year-old has convinced the NBA community of his ability. Between the Nuggets’ 2020 bubble run to the Western Conference Finals and their championship run last season, Murray averaged 26.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.9 assists, shooting 48.8/42.3/91.2%. He had a 30-point triple-double in an NBA Finals game to match Jokic in Miami.

But autumn injuries and slow starts to the regular season have remained a trend, just enough to prevent Murray from joining his MVP teammate at All-Star weekend.

“It is what it is,” he said.

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Denver, CO

Denver bookstore Tattered Cover accepts $1.83 million sales bid from Barnes & Noble

Published

5 hours ago

June 18, 2024

Press Room

Denver bookstore Tattered Cover accepts $1.83 million sales bid from Barnes & Noble

The Tattered Cover, a beloved Denver institution and nationally known independent bookstore, has accepted a sales offer from Barnes & Noble, a model for the fictionalized corporate bookstore chain that ran a small independent bookseller out of business in the movie “You’ve Got Mail.”

The 53-year-old Denver business, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2023, agreed Monday to accept Barnes & Noble’s offer of up to $1.83 million in cash. The agreement is for Tattered Cover’s four stores and is supported by the bookstore’s parent company, Bended Page.

Under the agreement, the name of the Tattered Cover Book Store and the store’s program of events would continue, according to a motion filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado. The buyer, TC Acquisition Co. LLC, an affiliate of Barnes & Noble Inc., anticipates offering jobs to “substantially all” of Tattered Cover’s roughly 70 employees.

The purchase will cover the $1.6 million in secured claims that Tattered Cover owes. Barnes & Noble will pay $50,000 for back rent and plans to extend the leases on the store’s sites.

The lease on the store’s main location at East Colfax Avenue in Denver will be extended through 2038 and the lease on the store in the Aspen Grove shopping center in Littleton would run through 2030, said Steven Silvers, a spokesman for Bended Page.

Read the full story from our partners at The Denver Post.

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Denver, CO

Plane crashes in Steamboat Springs, smoke rises from mobile home park

Published

12 hours ago

June 17, 2024

Press Room

Plane crashes in Steamboat Springs, smoke rises from mobile home park

DENVER (KDVR) — A plane crashed Monday in a Steamboat Springs mobile home park, according to reports from the scene.

The Routt County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the crash when FOX31 reached out around 4:45 p.m.

A photo from Steamboat Radio’s Shannon Lukens showed smoke rising from the crash site in the area of West Acres, a Steamboat Springs mobile home park. Lukens said two trailers caught fire.

Lukens spoke with a West Acres resident who was there when the crash happened.

“I just heard a jet pass by and I just hear a boom, everything around us just shakes,” Beyonce Alegria told Lukens. “There’s screaming, there’s people screaming there’s kids in there. And the houses just go up in flames. You can just feel everything going hot. Ashes are everywhere. It was one of the scariest experiences.”

FOX31 has a crew headed to the scene and is working to develop more information about what happened. Check back here and on FOX31 News at 5 p.m. for updates.

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Denver, CO

Oregon Football’s Bo Nix Impresses Denver Wide Receiver

Published

19 hours ago

June 17, 2024

Press Room

Oregon Football’s Bo Nix Impresses Denver Wide Receiver

More praise for former Oregon quarterback Bo Nix, this time from Denver Bronco Pro Bowl receiver Courtland Sutton.

Sutton is the latest to chime in on the ability of Nix to lead this team into a new era. Simply put, Sutton forecasts early success for Nix.

“If it becomes a three or four-year dynasty, then I hope I will be able to be a part of it.”
– Courtland Sutton, Broncos Receiver

The Broncos drafted Nix with the 12th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft with high expectations for the record setting former Duck.

Sutton acknowledges there is a three-way battle for the starting QB position in Denver. In addition to Nix, rookie Jarrett Stidham and veteran Zach Wilson are all in the mix. However, he does not see this as being a long, multi-year process of hits and misses while battling division rivals Kansas City and the Los Angeles Chargers who tout another former Duck quarterback Justin Herbert and a new coach in Jim Harbaugh.

“We want to win right now,” said Sutton during a recent interview. “I think with Bo being a young guy and a guy they took really high, I understand the politics of the game and everyone is rooting for him to be the guy. I think he does a lot of things really well and I think he has the ability to go out and have success early. I don’t see this being a three or four-year process. If it becomes a three or four-year dynasty, then I hope I will be able to be a part of it.”

Denver Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton runs with the ball against the Detroit Lions.

Dec 16, 2023; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Denver Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton (14) runs with the ball against the Detroit Lions in the third quarter at Ford Field. / Lon Horwedel-USA TODAY Sports

Sutton’s role going forward is not as clear as he would like. Following an outstanding 2023 season in which he caught 59 passes for 772 yards and 10 touchdowns, Sutton has asked Denver for either more money overall and/or more guaranteed money. So far, there has been no movement on either side.

Logically, it makes sense for the Broncos to find a way to keep Sutton onboard. This is the time for quarterbacks and wide receivers to get to know each other. More specifically, Nix would benefit from having a proven receiver to rely on early in his career. Sutton has been that guy for the “musical chairs game” of signal-callers over the past five seasons and there is no reason to think he can’t be the same for Nix.

“I hope that I am a part of the bigger picture,” said Sutton. “I’ve been told that is what the gameplan is. I’ve also been told some other things. We will see what happens. I hope I am able to be a part of the gameplan.”

While there appears to be a great deal of pressure on Nix’s shoulders, Oregon Ducks’ fans have seen proof of his ability to take on that sort of pressure and excel. The Broncos believe this former Oregon star is NFL-ready. We will see in a few short months.

Stay up to date on all things Oregon Ducks by visiting Oregon Ducks on SI daily and following Oregon Ducks on SI on Facebook and X.

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