NBA lucky Murray’s actions didn’t cause injuries
A hefty fine, but no suspension for Jamal Murray after he tossed a towel and heating pad onto the court area in frustration during Denver’s 106-80 loss on Monday to Minnesota in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals.
The NBA fined the Nuggets shooting guard $100,000 “for throwing multiple objects in the direction of a game official during live play.”
Many on social media called for Murray to be suspended, leaving Warriors forward Draymond Green saying on his podcast that “it’s crazy how people just automatically start calling for suspensions these days.”
This is coming from someone who was suspended 12 games for his incident with Suns forward Jusuf Nurkic during a Dec. 12 game this season. Green acknowledged what Murray did was dangerous, saying, “Somebody step on that, A, it leaves a wet spot and B, could really jack somebody up.”
Now granted, the fine was a huge one, but the NBA is lucky no one was hurt or there would’ve been a louder cry for Murray to get suspended. Since no one did, even though Karl-Anthony Towns nearly stepped on the heat pack, the league didn’t have to factor that into the equation of making this decision, but Murray’s actions warranted a suspension because of what he did, how reckless it was and his actions were aimed at a referee, Marc Davis.
Murray threw the towel first as it hit the heels of Davis’ feet, but a ball boy quickly picked up the towel before Davis even saw it.
Murray then stood up and threw the heat pack with both hands onto the court area as it slid onto the court. The heat pack first hit Nuggets guard Reggie Jackson’s foot in the paint and bounced out of the paint.
Then the T-Wolves’ Towns nearly stepped on the heat pack in following up a miss with a bucket to give the thirdseeded Timberwolves a 49-30 lead with 4:41 left in the first half.
Seeing the heat pack still on the floor, Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope threw it back towards Denver’s bench. Davis noticed Caldwell-Pope doing that and immediately stopped play.
“That was a heat pack,” TNT NBA analyst Jamal Crawford said during the broadcast as the play was being replayed. “That came from the bench. That was a heat pack for sure. When I got old and was still playing, I knew what heat packs were. I had to get them all the time. I know what that was.”
No technical foul was called on the play, but former NBA player Tim Hardaway said on “The Carton Show” that Murray should’ve been suspended for Game 3 Friday in Minneapolis.
“Let me tell you this, that could hurt somebody,” Hardaway said. “They could slip, hurt their knee, hurt their groin, they could hurt their hamstring, whatever. That could seriously hurt somebody if somebody stepped on that, and if I was the NBA, I would take that very, very seriously and I would suspend him for (Game 3) because that could be detrimental to not only your teammates, but the other team.”
This was after Nuggets coach Michael Malone got in the face of Davis after feeling Towns should have been called for a charge when he powered through the much smaller and shorter Murray and scored with 3:51 left in the first quarter. Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon missed a 3 on the other end and T-Wolves guard Anthony Edwards pushed Minnesota’s lead to five points, 22-17, with a difficult, hanging shot over Nikola Jokic and Jackson, who went down on the play.
Malone immediately called a timeout, walked onto the court and started screaming nose-to-nose at Davis. DeAndre Jordan and Peyton Watson restrained Malone as Gordon started talking to Davis, but Davis didn’t eject Malone or even give him a technical foul.
So the Nuggets avoided two technical fouls for Malone and Murray during the game, and Murray wasn’t suspended for Game 3. It’s the playoffs, emotions are even higher and not suspending Murray has the feel of wanting to make the series as competitive as possible, but had a player gotten hurt for something Murray didn’t have to do, would Murray had been suspended?
The NBA is lucky they didn’t have to find out.
With that being said, a narrative that’s not as hot a topic is Murray’s frustrations are largely stemming from the way Minnesota is defending him with physical pressure defense. Feeling as if the T-Wolves should’ve been called for fouls, Murray reached a level of frustration that had him throwing a towel and heat pack on the court.