Jamal Murray Being Disgusted By LA's Tap Water Makes Perfect Sense Considering Denver's Water Is Beyond Elite

Adam Pantozzi. Getty Images.

You know how every once in a while a professional athlete who despite having virtually nothing in common with the rest of us normal folk, has a moment that makes them extremely relatable? One of those "Player X, they're just like us!" type of deals?

Well, that's exactly the feeling I had with Jamal Murray. On the surface, we couldn't be more opposite. He's a champion, an extremely talented basketball player, rich as hell, and despite never being an All Star, Murray is without a doubt a "16 game player", which at the end of the day is what truly matters.

I, an old washed-up blogger am none of those things. 

So how could I possibly relate? 

This moment right here. The second I saw Murray reacting this way having to drink LA tap water, I've never related to him more. Not because I've ever had LA tap water (but I can't imagine it's good), but because I can understand what he's comparing it to. 

The tap water in Denver is truly as elite as it gets.

As someone who was born and raised in Worcester, MA, and has lived all over the country, I've experienced all ranges of tap water. From living in Arizona while in college at ASU, living in Denver (shoutout Colorado Rapids ticket sales!) after college, Nevada etc. Without a doubt, of all the places I've lived the tap water in MA and CO were a cut above. I never really thought about this growing up until I went to college and tried the Arizona tap water for the first time, and I imagine I made a similar face to Murray. In Nevada, the water is so hard and tastes so weird you're insane if you don't have some sort of reverse osmosis system under your sink.

But Denver? It was life-changing, and it doesn't take a scientist to realize why

VW Pics. Getty Images.

Robert Alexander. Getty Images.

According to the Denver Water Organization

Denver Water, which provides water to 1.5 million people across the metro area, relies on a system that collects rain and snow from across 4,000 square miles of mountains and foothills west of Denver.

“Every year it’s helpful to have a large and diverse water collection system, because you never know how much snow we’ll see in Colorado and where it will fall,” said Nathan Elder, water supply manager at Denver Water. 

On an average year, the utility captures 290,000 acre-feet of rain and snowmelt in its collection system. That’s roughly 94 billion gallons of water — or enough to fill up nearly 157 Empower Fields at Mile High. 

The water flows down rivers and streams, then through a network of tunnels, pipelines and canals to treatment facilities in the Front Range to be cleaned for delivery to homes and businesses. Because most of the water comes from mountain snowmelt in the spring, water is stored in mountain reservoirs until it is needed.

Hard to get fresher water than that in my opinion. A bit of a cheat code given their surroundings, but whatever. The facts are the facts. Drinking Denver water is noticeably different. 

As I've gotten older, I've transitioned into pretty much being exclusively a water guy. You give me the choice between an ice-cold glass of water or basically any other type of beverage and I'm taking water without hesitation. I'm not sure if this is just what happens when you transition into an "old" or what, but it doesn't matter if I'm just at my house or at a restaurant. I'm going water every single time. Part of me thinks it may be some sort of childhood trauma since growing up my brother and I were never really allowed to order soda at a restaurant, maybe it's the "Greenberg" part of me that despises the idea of wasting money on soda/drinks when you can just get water, and honestly, the only other thing I drink is Polar Seltzer but 99.5% of the time I'm not only drinking normal ass water, I prefer it.

Advertisement

In my opinion, there's nothing worse than drinking gross tap water. Have you ever experienced drinking out of a cup with stinky ice that somehow smells like fish? Maybe you live somewhere with gross water combined with an expired water filter in your fridge and it produces a smell that is legit vomit-inducing. You make a face exactly like what we see Jamal Murray have in that clip. 

So while Jamal Murray and I could not be more different, in this instance, we are the same. I get it. Once you've tried the water in Denver, all other tap water tastes like shit.