The Murray Mindset
The day after Jamal Murray signed a $170-million contract extension, the Orangeville Prep alum was back shooting in the gym at the Athlete Institute in Mono.
Murray and his Denver Nuggets teammates are fresh off completing what most NBA prognosticators considered to be the unthinkable: taking down Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers. But few are shocked at Orangeville Prep.
“He has always been hungrier than anybody, works harder and wants it more,” said Jesse Tipping, president of the Athlete Institute and Orangeville Prep, where Murray honed his skills before heading to the University of Kentucky and getting drafted by the Nuggets.  
“When his back is against the wall, there is nobody who’s better,” he added. “It’s the Murray mindset. … He doesn’t care who is in front of him; it is going to be his gym.”
Murray reeled off a signature 40-point performance in Game 7 on Tuesday, Sept. 15, that helped the Nuggets beat the Clippers and rally back from a 3-1 series deficit for the second time this post-season.
While Denver centre Nikola Jokic posted a triple-double in points, rebounds and assists, it was Murray who kept the Nuggets in the game by scoring 20 points during a second quarter in which the Clippers threatened to pull away, providing timely play after timely play to a team that needed it.
“How many times have we seen it? Our season is on the line. We need somebody to make a big play, and Jamal Murray steps up,” said Denver head coach Michael Malone.
“You find out a lot about people in these moments. In Game 7s. In elimination games. And man, have we passed the character test or what? And we’ve done it time and time again.”
That character test is something Murray has been passing all the way back to his days at Orangeville Prep. The “Murray mindset,” or watching him “go into J-mode” are things Tipping was accustomed to seeing while the budding NBA superstar was at Orangeville Prep.
“I’ve seen Jamal be down 30 in a game in high school and he just doesn’t say anything. There’s a dead stare on his face. You just know he is ready,” Tipping said, expressing pride in the fact Murray is making it count on the grandest of stages.
“This is an ODSS grad. This is the highest paid Canadian athlete of all-time and an Orangeville Prep alum. And someone who is in our gym every summer,” he added. “The fact that he’s going against LeBron James in the NBA western conference finals when it’s five years removed from having him working in our gym is incredible.”
As a Canadian raised in Kitchener, Tipping said Murray knew and accepted he had to work harder to get recognized, recruited to the NCAA or drafted to the NBA.
That Murray mindset took root with his commitment to go to Orangeville Prep instead of a high school in the states. Tipping said Murray knew he was going to work harder than anybody else.
“As a Canadian in high school, he had to work harder. In college, he had to work harder just to get the recognition that an American player might,” Tipping said. “With that decision, he set his whole mindset: It doesn’t matter what gets put in front of me. It matters how much and how hard I work.”
Now, Murray and his Denver teammates will turn their focus on James and the Los Angeles Lakers. Tipping’s prediction: Nuggets in seven, citing Denver and Murray’s perfect 6-0 record when facing elimination in this year’s playoffs.
“Jamal is a special diamond. But there is going to be more,” Tipping said, referring to the past and current crop of players at Orangeville Prep.
Some of them include Detroit Piston Thon Maker, Toronto Raptor Oshae Brissett and Oklahoma City’s forward Luguentz Dort — a rookie who Tipping watched “lock down” on NBA scoring champion James Harden in the NBA’s playoff bubble.
“These guys are going to be savvy NBA vets. Then, to go down the list of (Orangeville Prep) guys who are in college to guys who are playing in our gym right now,” Tipping paused. “There will be 20 NBA players out of this program in the next five years.”
For more about the Athlete Institute and Orangeville Prep, visit athleteinstitute.ca.
— With files from the Toronto Star