Kings guard Iman Shumpert was stopped from going into the Portland locker room by arena and Trail Blazers security after Sacramento’s 115-107 victory Monday night. Shumpert apparently was angry at Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic, who set a hard screen in the second half. “Some stuff needed to be between me and him, a conversation between two men,” Shumpert said. “Some stuff happened out there that we needed to have a conversation about. That’s it.”
Jusuf Nurkic Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: C
Born: 08/23/94
Height: 6-11 / 2.11
Weight:220 lbs. / 99.8 kg.
Salary: $11,111,111
Born: 08/23/94
Height: 6-11 / 2.11
Weight:220 lbs. / 99.8 kg.
Salary: $11,111,111
“I’m not going to worry about it,” he said. “He’s going into retirement soon. I’m not going to worry about a guy who’s going into retirement soon.”
Iman Shumpert: I apologize to the fans if I made a scene. Wasn’t my intention but this 2019 stuff is all about a “story”. Don’t let that distract you from this young Scores ball club getting a great victory against a tested Blazers team #theScoresisHERE #purpletalk
The signing restrictions for Marcus Smart, Joe Harris, Zach LaVine, Rodney Hood, Nikola Jokic, Will Barton, Chris Paul, Clint Capela, Avery Bradley, Montrezl Harrell, Paul George, Jerami Grant, Aaron Gordon, Jusuf Nurkic, Davis Bertans, Bryn Forbes, Fred VanVleet, Derrick Favors, Raul Neto and Dante Exum will be lifted on Tuesday January 15. Hood and LaVine have veto power on any trade.
Kerry Eggers: Hornets coach James Borrego on Blazers’ @Jusuf Nurkic: “He’s playing as well as any center in the league right now. He’s really efficient down there when he catches it.” #RipCity
A buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Dallas rookie sensation Luka Doncic to send the game into overtime could have rattled the Portland Trail Blazers. Instead, they made the most of the additional five minutes. “I mean, people make shots. It’s the NBA,” Jusuf Nurkic said about Doncic’s big 3. “You can’t get down (because of) one shot.” Portland recovered in overtime to hand the Mavericks their sixth straight loss, 121-118 on Sunday night.
So Lillard let Nurkic know the clouds would eventually part and the ball would start falling. He went out of his way to get him the ball that game. “It means the world to me, man,” Nurkic says. “I’m from Bosnia, a small country, three, almost four million [people]. To me, it’s like a dream to have a superstar, and he kinda takes you under his … wing for whatever you need. ” Lillard remembers telling Nurkic the organization accepted him and wanted to help him advance as a player. “Once that happened, he just opened up,” Lillard says in a conversation a few days before Thanksgiving. “I felt like he needs somebody to be in his corner because it seemed like they didn’t support him there, so I just decided I was going to be in his corner and he opened up to me and we hit it off from there.”
