Jamal Murray

The soundtrack was probably nothing Roger Murray had ever experienced in his life. It was certainly nothing he’d ever heard for his birthday.

While Nikola’s two older brothers scoured a playlist loaded with Serbian hits, Jamal Murray’s dad clutched the Larry O’brien trophy in his right hand. He danced and flashed a wide, toothy smile, not five feet from his son’s locker room stall.

“This is his birthday present,” Jamal crowed.

Roger was responsible for instilling a mental toughness in Jamal that would help him overcome every hurdle, including his greatest obstacle: rehabbing his torn ACL. Whenever Jamal cites his mental work, or his belief as a kid that a championship was inevitable, or the grueling workouts he endured in Kitchener, Ontario that got him to this point, that’s Roger he’s talking about.

“Perseverance,” Roger said. “This is one of the goals, and we hit it, and I love it. It’s my birthday present.”

Michael Malone When Michael Malone got back to his office in the bowels of the Nuggets’ locker room after the title was clinched, the first person he called was his father. The second person he called was his mother.

When his dad, Brendan, picked up, not much was said at first.

“I couldn’t talk for a minute,” the younger Malone said. “I was emotional and I just told him, I said, listen, ‘It’s important for you to know how much I love you.’ And we don’t throw that word around a lot in my family.”

The younger Malone told his father, who spent close to three decades as a coach in the NBA, that he never would’ve been in this position without him. As a high school coach in New York City, college coach along the East Coast, and then a coach for several franchises in the NBA, the elder Malone tried to dissuade his son from getting into the profession. Michael followed in Brendan’s footsteps anyway.

As it turns out, neither could shake their competitive spirit.

In the three days before the Nuggets clinched their championship, Michael said his father texted him five times a day.

“It wasn’t, ‘You’re a great coach, congratulations,’” Malone said. “It was, ‘This is what you got to do to win it.’”