By Michalis Gioulenoglou/ info@eurohoops.net
Limassol, Cyprus – Jusuf Nurkic has been around for better and worse. EuroBasket 2025 sits on the better side of his career with Bosnia-Herzegovina.
“We’re not done. We just made the second phase,” he mentioned after the Gameday 5 affair in Spyros Kyprianou Arena.
“I wish it weren’t like that. I wish it’s better in a way, by government funding,” he continued, recalling individually funding the senior national team of his country in previous international tournaments, “To be like a normal country, like everywhere else, where people don’t have to worry about certain things like small things, traveling, and hotels, and certain stuff.”
“This was probably in the hope of changing the minds of the people and the governments, and maybe they finally agreed that it should be better for the next generation, for the young generation to want to wear the jersey, but I can’t really control those things. I can only call out. I’m here to help any way I can, playing, financially, whatever I have to do,” he added, “Sometimes it’s better to stay inside, but sometimes you have to go outside.”
With Bosnia-Herzegovina locked in the third seed, the remaining Gameday 5 affairs, Italy versus Cyprus, and Greece versus Spain, will decide the rest of the four advancing spots and who will join the hosts on the elimination block, Georgia or Spain.
“To me, they’re not losing,” he predicted Greece would beat Spain, thus clinch the top seed, sending Georgia fourth and Spain out.
Talking to gathered reporters, Nurkic was also asked to compare EuroBasket to the NBA.
“There’s such a difference because it’s only one game, and to me it’s more like a knockout phase like March Madness than it’s like a playoff series,” he replied, “It’s fun.”
Photo Credit: FIBA