After scor­ing 50 points to save the Nuggets’ sea­son, Jamal Mur­ray felt the weight, so heavy it knocked him to his knees as he walked toward the lock­er room after Denver’s 119–107 play­off vic­to­ry against Utah.

Wear­ing sneak­ers ded­i­cat­ed to Black lives lost, Mur­ray is doing the stuff of NBA leg­ends. His 142 points dur­ing this cur­rent, spec­tac­u­lar three-game span against the Jazz is a post­sea­son scor­ing binge only sur­passed in league his­to­ry by Jer­ry West and Michael Jor­dan. Hop in the car along­side play­ers known as The Logo and Air Jor­dan? You’re rid­ing with bas­ket­ball loyalty.

But what tran­scends sport are the tears nev­er far from Murray’s eyes, espe­cial­ly when the young Nuggets point guard gets misty talk­ing about the two faces paint­ed on his shoes, faces that serve as a stark reminder of vio­lent deaths suf­fered by Bre­on­na Tay­lor and George Floyd in encoun­ters with police.

“These shoes give me life. Even though these peo­ple are gone, they give me life. They help me find the strength to keep fight­ing,” Mur­ray said Sun­day, dur­ing an emo­tion­al postgame inter­view with TNT

In front of our eyes, after a long week when the shoot­ing of Jacob Blake in Wis­con­sin caused NBA play­ers in the Flori­da bub­ble to pause and debate whether this was the time to be play­ing games, Mur­ray has risen to the occa­sion, both on and off the court, grow­ing as an ath­lete and a man in front of our eyes.

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He has not only embod­ied the fight­ing spir­it of a Nuggets team that could’ve eas­i­ly quit when down 3–1 in this best-of-sev­en series. Mur­ray also has offered inspi­ra­tion to a state that needs every rea­son to smile we can get. Mur­ray is a rea­son to stand up and cheer, even as wild­fires rage in the moun­tains and small Den­ver busi­ness­es fight to sur­vive in 2020, four dig­its trans­formed into a four-let­ter word mut­tered under our breath.

Our sports heroes feel the same weight we do. Yes, they are blessed by mon­ey and fame. For it all, Mur­ray is grate­fu. But he is also bestowed with grace rare in a 23-year-old man. His empa­thy is what makes Mur­ray spe­cial beyond the abil­i­ty to shoot a jumper with accu­ra­cy that makes him The Blue Arrow, a nick­name befit­ting an emerg­ing bas­ket­ball hero.

In many ways, how­ev­er, Mur­ray reveals him­self to be not so very dif­fer­ent than you or me. We are Mur­ray. And he is us. His heart beats with the same love as a moth­er who grieves for a daugh­ter shot dead in her apart­ment. His will to win echoes the yearn­ing of a wait­er who wants for noth­ing more than to work again at a restau­rant shut­tered dur­ing the pandemic.

“It’s your life,” said Mur­ray, thoughts dri­fit­ing to Blake, who now must fight the unknown of paral­y­sis in a hos­pi­tal bed after being shot sev­en times in the back. “Imag­ine a father, son, broth­er being shot sev­en times in front of his kids. Imag­ine that.”

RELATED: Jamal Mur­ray gives emo­tion­al post-game inter­view after send­ing Nuggets to Game 7: “We found some­thing we’re fight­ing for”

Mur­ray does not pre­tend to be as coura­geous as an ICU nurse tend­ing to COVID-19 patients or think he’s more com­mit­ted to his beliefs than pro­tes­tors cry­ing for jus­tice in the streets of cities through­out Amer­i­ca. He under­stands you’re weary, because he has felt the same emo­tion­al fatigue, a byprod­uct of grow­ing up Black in a world where all men are not treat­ed equal­ly, depend­ing on the col­or of their skin or eth­nic background.

“We’ve been fight­ing this fight for a long time,” Mur­ray said. “We’re tired of being tired.”

For those keep­ing score at home, Mur­ray has tal­lied 50, 42 and 50 points again dur­ing his most recent three games in the NBA bubble.

Dal­las guard Luka Don­cic might be the league’s next big thing. But I not so humbly sub­mit a crazy idea first espoused last week: Mur­ray has been every bit as good, if not more clutch, than Luka in the ear­ly stages of these play­offs, while also car­ry­ing the weight of Black lives lost every step of the way.

“I use those shoes as extra moti­va­tion to will myself to fight, win or lose,” Mur­ray said.

Bas­ket­ball is not big­ger than life. It is life, in many of the basic ways that mat­ter most. It’s push­ing back the cov­ers and rolling out of bed in the morn­ing after anoth­er tough week. It’s sum­mon­ing the stub­born refusal to let your team­mates lose, then tak­ing dead-sol­id aim with your blue arrow.

“Life is a weird thing,” Mur­ray said.

Yes, life can be a strug­gle for any of us, espe­cial­ly in 2020.

But view this strug­gle as a gift, and a bas­ket­ball play­er can car­ry a city on his shoul­ders, if only for one night.

On this warm August night dur­ing the tough­est year we ever hope to know, Murray’s gift was to make the net sing with 50 points that lit up smiles as bright as stars twin­kling over the Rocky Mountains.