Jusuf Nurkic wasn’t supposed to play hoops, but fate had other plans. According to the Bosnian Beast, he picked up a basketball at 15, trained hard, and found himself in the NBA after five years. Nurk shared this unconventional path to professional basketball with Erico Dias of Macao News. The Phoenix Suns center was recently in the “Las Vegas of Asia” with general manager James Jones and other Suns alum.
“It’s a funny story. I didn’t practice basketball or any sport until 2009. One day, a man from my village showed up at home and basically said that I could be a really good basketball player. But at that time, I didn’t know anything about basketball,” said Nurkic. “But I decided to give it a shot. I went to basketball practice and started learning the rules, how to run, jump, and make certain moves. Five years after I first picked up a basketball, I was in the NBA.”
“It was like a crazy fast story. To go from no sports to the NBA is uncommon. But that’s basically the way it happened,” added the 7-foot veteran.
Nurkic was busy helping out on his parents’ far in the city of Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He sometimes played football (soccer), the country’s most popular sport, but it became apparent he was not built for running around a field.
“Do you have a son?”
Nurk left out a few details of his story, so this piece will fill in some of the blanks. According to the Phoenix Suns website, Jusuf wouldn’t have been discovered without his dad . Hariz Nurkic was a seven-foot, 400-pound cop back in their hometown and became an overnight celebrity once for beating up 14 people in a fight!
When a Bosnian sports agent named Enes Trnovcevic read about what Hariz did in the newspaper, he knew exactly what to do. He found a way to contact the cop and asked him one thing: “Do you have a son?”
In essence, Jusuf was only “discovered” because his dad turned into Jack Reacher, knocking out people left and right. The fiasco drew much attention and was reported in the papers; the rest is history.
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Other NBA late bloomers
To Jusuf’s credit, his dad got him a look, but he did the hard work from thereon out. Nurkic signed a pro deal in the Adriatic League in 2012 and was the Croatian League Finals MVP in 2014. He decided to join the NBA Draft that same year and was picked by the Chicago Bulls just outside the lottery.
It’s not an optimal path to the NBA, but others trekked the same trail. Joel Embiid also started playing basketball at 15, and Tim Duncan at 14. Even more remarkable was Pascal Siakam, who picked up a basketball at 17 and made it to the NBA five years later.
Other notable late bloomers include Dennis Rodman (21), Mark Eaton (20), Dikembe Mutombo (17), and Hakeem Olajuwon (15). Interestingly, Nurkic is the only name in this group that is yet to make an All-Star team.
Man in the middle
Nurkic’s NBA career is solid at best, but he has a chance to be a part of something special in Phoenix. With Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal all back, the Suns are among the top teams in the West. They addressed their playmaking issues by signing Tyus Jones and Monte Morris, two point guards who won’t steal the spotlight from the Big 3.
Nevertheless, this won’t work if the Bosnian Beast’s presence is not felt in the middle. Part of his job is to be available for the team, which he did by playing 76 games last season. Jusuf last played that many outings in the 2017-18 season, appearing in a career-high 79 games for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Related: “I love being on the court with him” - Devin Booker reflects on his relationship with Jusuf Nurkic on the Phoenix Suns
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