Portland's big man and former 16th pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Jusuf Nurkic has had a rocky path coming to the NBA. The Bosnian international actually got his first steps in basketball because of his dad, and there is a crazy story behind it.
His father was a police officer in a small town in Bosnia, and his future agent, Enes Trnovcevic, came to drink coffee at a local place. While drinking coffee, he saw an article that talked about a police officer beating up 14 guys by himself, and asked to meet him. When he met him, he asked only is he had a son. Jusuf Nurkic was 14 at the time, and he actually recalled a part of that history in an interview with Slam Online.
“My father is a 7-foot tall, 400-pound police officer in Bosnia—don’t mess with him [laughs]. He tried to play basketball but they couldn’t find shoes for him. He’s a size 22. My agent saw him and went up to ask him if he had any kids and my dad said, ‘Yeah, I have one and he’s giving me trouble because I can’t find shoes for him.’ From the first day I met my agent, he told me I was going to be an NBA player and I thought, What’s wrong with this dude? I haven’t even practiced yet.”
After a couple of years in Slovenia and Croatia, Nurkic was drafted and immediately traded to Denver. After a couple of up and down years in Colorado, during which he earned a place on the All-Rookie Second Team, he was traded mid-season in 2017 to the Portland Trail Blazers, where he put up amazing numbers and only a knee injury kept him from continuing his good play in the playoffs.
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