The Denver Nuggets acquired 7-foot Bosnian center Jusuf Nurkic in a draft day trade with the Chicago Bulls, who had selected the big man with the 16th pick the NBA Draft. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of him, because we hadn’t either before today (if you’d like to bone up on your Jusuf Nurkic knowledge, go here). Nurkic was scheduled to play with the Bosnian national team as it attempts to qualify for 2015 Eurobasket. Unfortunately, signing a four-year, $7 million rookie deal got in the way, and he ditched the Bosnian national team to focus on his NBA career. Obviously, this didn’t sit too well with the Bosnian basketball federation:
Just hours after Jusuf Nurkic signed his contract with Denver Nuggets, he was declared a “traitor” by the Bosnian basketball federation. The player decided to leave the Bosnian national team training camp, saying he was injured after initially stating that he was tired
However, the federation believes otherwise, saying that Nurkic “betrayed their trust” and left the national team without permission.
Slapping the “traitor” tag on Nurkic seems a bit harsh, but I guess that’s how they roll over there.
