The CRAZY Story Of How Jusuf Nurkic Was Discovered !!! I Strictly Bball Podcast Episode #4

Today we're talking about the origin story, one of the most incredible origin stories of any NBA player, the origin story of Yusuf Nurkic. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to episode three of the Strictly B-Ball podcast. My name is Joe. I'm here alongside my co-host, Nolan. Nolan, how are we feeling today? I'm feeling good. Great to be back on the podcast. I've been a little bit busy with school, third week of school, so the workload is sort of building up a little bit. It's your first week of school, right? Yeah. How is it? Diving right into it. So this week. Yeah, it's not too much yet, but it is gonna break up the momentum we got going, but we gotta keep these podcasts going. So we got episode three today, and we have, I'd probably say, one of the most incredible stories that we've covered on our TikTok page. Okay. What do you think it is? I would say this is the best story we have covered on the TikTok page. The first one that came to mind for me would be Bones Highland. It's pretty, I feel like that's a pretty, that's my guess. Yeah, that's one of the top ones. Today, we're talking about the origin story, one of the most incredible origin stories of any NBA player, the origin story of Yusuf Nurkic. Boom. Oh, okay. And I guess we'll just get right into it. Yusuf Nurkic, like I said, has the most unbelievable story of how he went from being a small-town kid in a small town in Bosnia to becoming an NBA center, all because his dad sent 15 grown men to the hospital during a fight. That is the reason Yusuf Nurkic, yep, so. I feel like we might get into that, but he took down 15 grown men by himself. Yusuf Nurkic's father will explain why his father getting in a fight with 15 men is the reason that Yusuf Nurkic is in the NBA. I'm intrigued. So, I mean, we know who Yusuf Nurkic is. He struggled with injuries the past couple years, but he has solidified himself as I'd say one of the more consistently good big men in the NBA. I'd say he's probably a top 10 center when he's healthy. He has averages in the past of 16 points and 10 rebounds a game. He's pretty much simply a monster on the interior. I mean, he is a six-foot-11, 290-pound guy, and with a frame like that, you gotta wonder whose genes were passed down to the successful NBA center. Of course. Who's his father? What's his family like? Well, it turns out that his father is just about the biggest dude you can possibly imagine. Yusuf Nurkic's father, Hariz Nurkic, is seven feet tall, 400 pounds. So, I mean, that plays a very large role in why Nurkic is in the NBA. Obviously, height is a big thing in the NBA, but 400 pounds. Yeah, Hariz and Hariz. Can you imagine just seeing a seven-footer that's 400 pounds? I mean, you think about Shaq. I think he's probably 330, 340 or something. Yeah, like the heaviest, I think the heaviest NBA player is Oliver Miller, if I'm not mistaken. Of all time, yeah. Yeah, he's like 365, 380 or something like that. He's 20 pounds. He's like 20 pounds heavier, and I think that's like four inches taller than he was. And he's a giant. Yeah, so Hariz Nurkic. He's an absolute giant. Hariz Nurkic was Yusuf's father, and he never played professional sports. He never played sports, but we'll get into a reason why. Yeah, like I said, 15 grown men in the hospital. That is Hariz Nurkic's, that is the role he played in sending Yusuf Nurkic to the NBA. So we'll throw it back to when Nurkic was 14 years old. He was a five foot 10, 14 year old growing up in Bosnia, part of a working class family. He had never played basketball in his entire life, and many kids now at 14 years old. I mean, we've talked about it on many occasions. 14 year olds now in the US, many of them are already on the national stage. We talked about Bronny's AU team. Those guys already have a million followers. At this point, Yusuf Nurkic's career, I guess not even career, life, he was 14 years old, working class family. He's five 10, so he wasn't even playing basketball. So a pretty normal size 14 year old who hadn't picked up a basketball yet, you would assume there's a pretty low chance of him playing a professional sport, playing in the NBA, especially playing in Bosnia or growing up in Bosnia. Well, like I said, actually, I just have this in my notes here. Harz Nurkic is listed at seven feet, 420 pounds. So- We're adding another 20 pounds. Off the top of my head, I thought it was 400, but I got this right here. He's 420 pounds. I don't know if that's an official number, probably not, but whenever he's mentioned that before, he said 420 pounds. So his profession growing up, or his profession when Yusuf was growing up, he was a cop in Nurkic's hometown, and one day while on the job, Harz ended up breaking up or getting involved in a brawl with 15 grown men. So it sounds like there was a major brawl going on and Harz was the cop who was called at situation. Now, I don't see this necessarily happening. I don't know. I can't imagine this happening, but I guess in Bosnia, his role in this situation was- Harz is all reliable. He's all reliable in situations like that. I gotta imagine this 14-person brawl sees Harz Nurkic show up. It sets a little bit of fear. Imagine how much just like... I also bet in this small town, he's probably the one cop in the town that's feared, and 100%. And so he shows up, and basically, it didn't really end up of him breaking up the fight. Apparently, he pretty much just joined in and put an end to the fight completely as the legend tells, Harz Nurkic ended up sending the 14 other men. So he sent 14 men to the hospital in this fight. So he definitely won the fight. I cannot imagine any other person... Can you think of any other person that could step into a 15-person fight and win and just send everyone else home one on 14? I mean, I'm thinking of big, super strong individuals. The world's strongest man, I don't even know what his name is. Maybe him, but I don't even know how tall. He would compare to him. I mean, Shaq is massive, extremely physical, strong as well. But I mean, compare it, like seven feet tall, 420 pounds. He's probably 100 pounds heavier than Shaq. Yep. I mean, I can't really think of anyone that compares to him. Honestly, that comes to my mind. No, no one. He just stepped in and sent 14 grown men to the hospital. Now, this story seems kind of exaggerated, but Yusuf actually... Yeah, it seems completely fake. I mean, there'd be no really way to absolutely confirm this, but Yusuf actually confirmed this story to be true. I think it was on NBA The Jump. And the story has to be somewhat true because actually following this occurrence, a Bosnian journalist, a Bosnian reporter wrote about this fight in a newspaper. So he documented it. I don't think anyone has that newspaper anymore, but it was documented, so it has to be somewhat true. So yeah, this journalist in Bosnia hears about a grown man, 420 pound guy, sending 14 other grown men to the hospital. He writes about it. And this newspaper story was circulated enough to reach the attention of a basketball agent named Ines Ternasevic. I believe I'm saying that right. I'm not exactly sure, but Ines Ternasevic immediately traveled to meet Hariz after hearing this story. I don't know how long the travel was, but he traveled to meet Hariz to ask him one thing, does he have any sons? So picture this, you're just an agent. And I think that this is a common story, not a common story, but a common thing for agents overseas. In the US, obviously the talent is kind of like seen right away. You can see guys coming up 13, 14 years old. Agents here, they kind of have an idea. After college, they get signed. But in other countries, they can sign guys when they're 13, 14 years old. It's happened before with international prospects. So he thought, if this seven foot 420 pound man has a son, I'm gonna sign him without ever seeing him. He didn't even know if he had a son. Well, obviously, Hariz introduced him to his 14 year old son named Yusuf. And Yusuf, when talking about this story, says Ternasevich said, quote, he looked at me and I was normal sized, but he said, that kid is going to be in the NBA. Oh, because he is, he's a normal size. I would say a little bit all above average, like five foot 10, 14 years old. That's pretty standard. So a little bit over in size. So his just belief in genetics was pretty strong here that he, I mean, he took him under his wing right then and there. Five, 10, 14 year old, never dribbled a basketball. And- You gotta keep that in mind too. Yeah. He doesn't have any prior experience in the sport. And he's just already saying this, that kid is going to be in the NBA. That's just another level of it. Like if he would have been a son of a seven footer, he was already playing from like 10 years old. You'd think he's got a pretty good potential, but you have no idea. He could have grown up to be six two and just unathletic. And Parr has never even played sports. He was just a seven footer who beat up 14 guys. So he- Very impressive though. He took the chance and it worked. It worked. It did. Oh man, this is just, okay. So then at the age of 17, so Yousef started playing in Slovenia. Enos- They started playing like right away after, do you know? Yeah, so he, pretty much right after this, Enos took him to Slovenia. I don't know if his family came with, I don't think they did. I think he was literally, I also just like question how much did Yousef like, and then Harris also just like trust that, all right, we're just like gonna trust that he's going to be in the NBA. How much he wanted to be in the NBA. Like, I mean, it was just, that kid's going to be in the NBA. It's not like Yousef, like, do you want to, do you want to try to be in the NBA? Like he talks about genetics or whatever. He just said that kid's going to be in the NBA. I mean, it's just probably, I mean, a lot of money is promised if you're telling somebody he's going to be in the NBA. And if you're, and if you're a kid, 14 years old, obviously, you know, the NBA, and like that could be an end goal for, it's the end goal for a lot of people. Like you hear someone just say, that kid's going to be in the NBA. And like, that's going to inspire me, motivate me. Like, okay, I'm going to go for it. Yeah, I'm really going to go for it. Yeah, you got to, brings up a good point. You got to wonder if he even liked basketball, if he knew about it. Cause I remember like the story with Yanis, similar story. He didn't even really like basketball right away. He liked soccer, but this, yeah. So he, he goes to Slovenia with Yanis, and by the age of 17, so a few years later, he played in a Nike International Junior Tournament, which was held in Belgrade. And this is kind of when he first started gaining the attention of international scouts, because at this point he had grown almost a foot and he was close to his current six foot 11 height. So he was 17 year old and it's just, Yanis is sitting back saying, I told you so. Yeah, exactly. He really is. He's saying, I told you so. He's pulling a Levar ball right there. Yeah, that's actually crazy. That's just absolutely crazy. He, he grows a foot. He starts to become an international prospect, gets the attention of NBA scouts. In October of 2012, so same year, I think he's still 17 at this point. He signed with a Croatian team, started playing professional basketball on a pretty high level. And this is where he played for two seasons. And then of course in 2014, six years after Yanis Tarnasovic took him under his wing, Yusif was drafted in the first round of the NBA draft by the Denver Nuggets. Six years from a five foot 10, 14 year old who never even touched a basketball in his life to an NBA first round pick guaranteed millions of dollars just because Haris Nerkic, his father, beat up 14 men in a brawl in Bosnia. That's one of the most insane stories I've ever heard. Imagine the course of Yusif Nerkic's life, if Yanis, whatever, wasn't involved, didn't come in, didn't travel all that way to meet with Haris. Yeah, if that newspaper, if that journalist in that small town. I mean, you could say, you could say the journalist as well. The journalist deserves some credit because if he didn't write that newspaper article, he's like, all right, I got to find a story. I'm going to write about some dude who beat up 14 guys. If he didn't decide that, then, then this story is never told. And who knows? Maybe Yusif would just be a six foot 11 athletic guy who would have grown up to be the next local cop. He would have followed in the footsteps of Haris. Imagine seeing that fight. That, that would be insane. That's something that I want to see. Imagine seeing the fight. I wonder how much of a beating Haris took. Oh yeah. That's 14 v one. I want to know how accurate that is. I know it has to be somewhat accurate just because obviously the article was written. It was an article that caught the attention of an agent. Obviously that, I believe in his story, but I don't know how accurate that could be. I mean, we never will know. And it makes you question because one guy, I don't care how big he is, seven feet tall, 420 pounds. We're talking 14 grown men. Grown men, losing. Can you imagine being one of those guys? And you're like, what? You're in the hospital. And then they're like, what happened? It's like a movie. Yeah, it is like a movie. And you're like, what happened? It's like a movie where just people keep coming in and just like every move just works and you just knock them all out. Yeah, he was literally, Haraz was literally fighting him in slow motion. He was there in the hospital, like beat up, got a black eye, just broken bones or whatever. They're like, what happened to you? And you're like, I got beat up by Haraz. And then everyone just knows because he's the local Jed is. That would just be like, that would like bring a crowd in. People would be recording it, posting it, but we have no evidence. Yeah, small town. And what'd you say, Bosnia? Yeah. So that's the story. I mean, that is the most, it has to be the most incredible origin story. I guess we don't know every single one, but what comes to mind when you think of a story like that? Who else could you think of that has kind of that, that origin story, that NBA lore story? Because I got one that comes to mind. Yeah, one that comes to mind to me is Giannis. Yeah. Giannis, is that the one that comes to mind? I think Giannis is the closest thing to this without the dramatics, without the mythical story of this story. But I think Giannis is the closest thing. Because he took, the agent went about this without even seeing or even knowing that Haraz has a son. He didn't even know that he exists. That's the funniest part. And he was willing to take the risk, do the travel, go meet him, just to ask if he had a son. Literally ask him. Which makes it really dramatic. Imagine if he gets there and the guy's just like, and Haraz is just like, no, I don't have a son. Ah, damn. And he just goes back. Just heads on back home and just calls it a day. But- Can you imagine how happy he was though? Oh, yeah. No, you just go, imagine, let's say he actually didn't know he had a son, which who knows the truth right now. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't truthful. But you show up and he's like, I do have a son. And you're like, let's go. He just walks him up. But even if the fact is like, what if he said, he's like, my son's like 20 years old. Yeah, he can- What can you do with that? You can't, you know what I mean? What if he's 20 years old? He is literally the perfect age he could have possibly been. I know. If he was like 18, you already missed so many years. Exactly. And if he was 24, he's like, all right, I got my job. Like, you're not going to be a prospect then. Yeah. Or if he's like eight years old, it's like, you can't take an eight-year-old under your wing. Yeah, you can't. He just got, he just hit the lottery. He hit the jackpot with Yusuf Nurkash. Yeah. But anyways, back to Giannis. Speaking on Giannis, it's a very similar story because the guy who discovered Giannis, I can't remember his name off the top of my head, but he was a basketball coach. He wasn't an agent, but he was like a coach that was kind of, I feel like from what I've remembered, like losing his job, kind of on the brink of losing his job with the team he was coaching. I think it was Olympiakos, the Greek team. Okay. I know that's a team Giannis eventually played, or I don't know, it's one of those Greek teams, but he was a coach for one of those Greek teams or one of those Greek programs. And he saw Giannis, and Thanasis, and Kostas playing tag in a local park and was like, wow, these guys. Do you know how old they were at the time? Kostas was really young. I think Giannis was probably around 14. He's just super skinny. Maybe he was 16. He was like 14 to 16. Okay. I don't have all the facts in front of me, but I know he was 14 to 16. He sees him play tag and sees like his agility. He never gets tired. He most specifically was talking about Giannis. And then he just walks up to him and says, he started talking to them. And then apparently it came up that his family was really poor because Giannis' family was super poor. And he was like, I can get your mom a job if you come play basketball for me. So that's the story of how Giannis was found because he was playing tag in a park. So I think that's a similar thing. That is pretty, yeah. It's a coach, not an agent, but he's taking a chance on just a kid who's never, again, never played basketball before. Giannis was a soccer player. Giannis' oldest brother, who doesn't get talked about, Francis, was I think a professional soccer player, but I know a talented soccer player. And he stayed in Nigeria when Giannis' family came over. But that is definitely up there, but it doesn't compare. It's more popular because it's Giannis. Yeah. But the specific dramatics of the story, you got to give it to Hariz and Yusuf. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it kind of makes me think like, you know, like any agent, like you just, like I guess the process of it, like you see a genetic freak walking around like Giannis, or I guess in, it's kind of even weird with the Hariz story because you didn't even see it, but you see that and just kind of assume like your son, like if he has a son, you know, he's going to have the genetics within him. Like, is it just like, is it really that easy? Like you just find a genetic freak on the side of the streets at a young age and you're like, let me take you under my wing to make your life playing basketball and you might have a shot at the NBA. That's a, I mean, that's a good question because could you just do that with anyone? Like, I think it's a lot of, obviously this story is just loaded with luck. I mean, the age, the fact that he even had a son, but I mean, the Giannis story, if you're an agent or a coach who's really good at seeing young talent. It's true. Also, but people change so much from 14 to 20, like Giannis could have been a skinny 16 year old with potential and then he just didn't grow or something. Giannis is just absolutely crazy. Well, here's the thing. I bet there is a lot of cases like that, like where they approach like these genetic freaks or people that they think have this sort of potential to just take them under their wing. Like if I train this person, if I take them under my wing, do everything in my power to give them the resources to play basketball and become good at it, that they will develop into something special. But the ones that it has to happen where that happens, but it just doesn't pan out and then there's not attention on that. Two things just came to my mind. One example of that is I think 7th Woods. Yeah. He was a 14 year old who was posterizing people and he just- I thought he was, I remember, how old was I? I don't know how old I was. I probably was like 13 years old. 13, yeah. You see his mixtape? I wait, I was 15. Yeah. We're like a couple of years younger than him at most. Yeah. Right? And you see this kid doing windmills, doing these like- 14 years old. Or did I say 13? Or no, I'm saying he was 14. Yeah, he was 14 years old. Crazy tomahawks, crazy like cradle type dunks. Absolutely insane mixtape and athleticism for a 14 year old kid. I thought he was the second coming of Michael Jordan. Oh yeah, he was the number one guy in the country. Yeah. And he just didn't progress physically. A lot of guys just caught up to him. Yeah, he capped. And he just, he capped off when he was 15, 14 years old. But another like genetics story is Yao Ming. They- That's- You could go on and on about that story. Because I mean, we know there's stories about how like the Chinese government or something- They forced his parents to get married and have a kid. Yeah, they encouraged like, they had this basketball camp. Well, they heavily encouraged it. I don't really know. Yeah, they had this basketball camp where they encouraged like two of the tallest people to have a kid and it turned out to be Yao Ming. And I think- Not only were they, sorry to interrupt, but not only are they tall, but I'm pretty sure both of them played basketball. They had experience with basketball. I think they were part of a Chinese basketball camp. Okay. And they encouraged them to have a kid. I don't know. That's another story. We don't have all the facts, but- Yeah. But I think there was some conspiracy that like they wanted Yao Ming to be the chosen one and it worked. I've heard stories that they were, the government was giving him like certain substances to like boost his growth. Kid you not, I'm not saying that that's confirmed or not, but there's a lot of conspiracies about Yao Ming. That's another Jinex story. But I mean, he's just a, he's seven foot six. Like he's just, he towers over Shaq. So I mean, obviously with that, you're going to have some conspiracies if I got to that. Because there's conspiracies that like China were like, they were like, we want to be good at sports. They were like, we want to be good at sports now. Obviously now at the Olympics, like China and the US are at the top. They obviously wanted to be good at sports and they worked with Yao Ming. But yeah, I definitely think we could dive into the Yao Ming story for another podcast. But that's going to do it for us today. Make sure you're following us on all socials at Strictly B-Ball on TikTok and Instagram. And make sure you're subscribed to us on YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify. And also leave a comment or review. We'll catch you next time.