Nurkic s crisis: Has his body distorted, may his NBA career end?

On August 12, 30-year-old Nurkic was standing at the crossroads of his career, facing a serious crisis of being eliminated by the NBA. Recently, his performance caused an uproar in the 2025 Men's Basketball European Championship warm-up match, and the Bosnia and Herzegovina coach even criticized his distorted figure.

Nurkic, despite contributing 15 points in Bosnia-Herzegovina's 90-102 loss to Montenegro, was particularly harsh in his slow movement on the field. After the game, Bosnia and Herzegovina coach Adis Beciragic could not hide his dissatisfaction and said bluntly that Nurkic had a distorted figure and could hardly run. At the same time, the coach also mentioned that Xavier Castaneda only started a five-on-five confrontation two days ago because he did not participate in training, and these situations have caused trouble for the team that has been running-in for two years. The coach stressed that the team had to be more prepared for the game, noting that the team missed 18 free throws against Serbia. Facing the outstanding Montenegro team, the coach hopes that the players can understand the problem and actively improve.

Nurkic has come to this point now, and lack of self-discipline is the main reason. Now 30, his ability to move on the court has dropped significantly due to his distorted figure, which is undoubtedly fatal for a professional basketball player. If he cannot make changes in time and continue like this, his NBA career will soon come to an end.

Looking back at Nurkic's career, he entered the NBA as the No. 16th pick in the first round, and he played as a center at 2.13 meters tall. During his 11-year career, he has played for many teams including the Nuggets, the Trail Blazers, the Suns and the Hornets, playing in a total of 635 regular season games, averaging 23.9 minutes per game, scoring 11.6 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists, and has also left many exciting moments on the court. However, in this year's European Championship, Bosnia and Herzegovina was assigned to Group C, which can be called the "death group", with opponents in the same group including Spain, Greece, Italy, Georgia and Cyprus. In such a fierce competitive environment, Nurkic's poor form undoubtedly doubled the difficulty of Bosnia and Herzegovina breaking through the siege.

This summer, Nurkic was traded to the Jazz by the Hornets, and the new team should have been his chance to prove himself again. But judging from his current performance in the national team's warm-up match, his condition is worrying. For Nurkic, the most urgent task is to face up to his own problems and restore his figure and competitive state as soon as possible through strict self-discipline and hard training. Otherwise, even with years of accumulated experience and former talents, it will be difficult to gain a foothold in the fiercely competitive NBA arena.

Basketball has extremely high requirements for players' physical fitness and competitive state. The distortion of body shape caused by lack of self-discipline is likely to become the "Waterloo" of Nurkic's career. We will wait and see whether he can wake up at the last moment, realize self-salvation, and return to the peak. After all, every basketball lover wants to see the players shine on the field, rather than saying goodbye to this stage of love too early for their own reasons.