GQ: After the 2016-17 season, you had lost about 35 pounds coming into training camp. How did you feel throughout the season that followed? Jusuf Nurkic: It feels amazing. It was new to me because I hadn’t played that many minutes or games in my career, so I wanted to be prepared. And it could have been difficult, over 82 games and the playoffs. I have really high expectations for myself, so it was amazing to see how much I could do in an offseason once I really focused and put in the work. Did you have to overhaul your wardrobe? Yeah, it’s difficult when you lose that much weight. [laughs] You have to change everything and buy all new clothes. Now all of my clothes are more fitted. You picked up biking in Denver to help avoid the traffic. Where does a seven-footer purchase a mountain bike? Of course, it’s customized. [laughs] I used to ride it around in Boulder, close to Denver. It was good exercise, and amazing to see the beauty of the Mile High City. I don't have much time for it right now, but probably in the summer I will try to bike in Portland, too. What foods did you have to eliminate from your diet? The main thing was cutting out the sugar. It was very difficult for me, because I love a lot of desserts—everything sweet. But when you want to do something good, you just have to focus and get out of your comfort zone. That was important for me. When you first started your career, how did you adjust to all the different food options that are at your disposal in each city? That was big. I’m a guy who likes to try different foods, and there are so many options. We have people in the organization and on the team who try to help. But when you’re traveling to other cities with all these different foods and restaurants, it can be a problem. https://www.gq.com/story/jusuf-nurkic-real-life-diet
I think you left out the most important part: People get so caught up in losing weight for performance, they often lose sight of food being energy. Nurk is a much better player this year than last, and I felt strongly last year that the weight loss was working against him. The end result was okay in this case, but he probably would have been better off cutting the weight more gradually. "Hopefully in a couple of years, or when someone beats Golden State, we can get back to real basketball, like the way it used to be." Okay, that's pretty good, too.
