After suffering a season-ending injury, the Portland Trail Blazers’ Jusuf Nurkic was shown tons of appreciation by fans. Recently, he thanked his supporters for the love they have shown him.
If there’s anything good that’s come from Jusuf Nurkic’s compound fracture, it’s all the warm fuzzy feelings that have emerged between him and Rip City fans. The Portland Trail Blazers lost their big man for the rest of the year on Monday in a double overtime victory over the Brooklyn Nets. Although the injury devastated the team and fans alike, Blazers’ fans immediately found ways to show their support for the recovering center. On Friday, the Bosnian Beast took to Twitter to thank everyone for all of the kind words and gestures.
In his message, he acknowledged everyone who had sent their well wishes and prayers:
THANK YOU to everyone who has reached out to me and sent their well wishes and prayers to me after my injury. I greatly appreciate the support.
— Jusuf Nurkić 🇧🇦 (@bosnianbeast27) March 29, 2019
I want to send a special thanks to my teammates, the Trail Blazer organization, the RIP City fans, my coaches, the team trainers and pic.twitter.com/1mrnTLxNJ6
Fans of Nurkic have shown their support in creative ways throughout the week. There were a slew of messages exchanged between them and him, Trail Blazers fan account Pinwheel Empire created a thread on Twitter for fans to show their support, and one Nurk-enthusiast even raised over $11,500 through GoFundMe for a “We love you Nurkic” billboard in Portland.
Words of encouragement thread for @bosnianbeast27
— Pinwheel Empire (@PinwheelEmpire) March 26, 2019
Shower him with your thoughts, prayers, and words of encouragement in this thread.#RipCity
His teammates have also kept him in their hearts. After he went down, players were in shock and made it clear how important Nurkic is to the Blazer’s character – like Enes Kanter saying it was like losing a “part of our family – not our team, our family.” And before Wednesday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls, the club FaceTimed Nurk before tip-off.
All this connectivity has also come along with good fortune. After winning their last two games against the Bulls and Atlanta Hawks without him, Portland extended a winning streak to six, their longest of the year.
These were winnable games without him, sure, but there’s a lot to be said for maintaining the team’s momentum in the face of this adversity.
According to Sean Meagher of the Oregonian, Nurkic is expected to make a full recovery, but there is no timetable for his return to basketball.
While we all hope the Bosnian Beast can get back on the floor sooner rather than later, the most important thing is that he gets completely healthy. If the response to his being sidelined is any indication, Blazers’ fans appear willing to wait for their big man to return to the fray at 100%.