Jusuf Nurkic Purchases Home for Family in Need

Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic, who often keeps his good deeds under the radar, has earned recognition for his philanthropy in his home country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. With a little help from the Pomozi.ba Association, Nurkic purchased a home for a struggling family.

Trail Blazers digital reporter Casey Holdahl highlighted the story on Friday. In the original story, a spokesperson for the Pomozi.ba Association detailed Nurkic’s effort to help the Memisevic family.

“After he saw the sad story of the Memisevic family, our national team member and NBA player, Jusuf Nurkic, bought them a house no less!” the organization said.

The mother in the family, Jasmina, lost her leg a decade ago after stepping on a landmine and takes care of her 11-year-old son, Adin, who has a heart condition. Her husband, Edvin, works odd jobs to provide for the family.

The family used to sleep on the floor of a run-down house without running water, a bathroom and nearly any furniture.

Nurkic contacted Pomozi.ba after seeing how they live. The family received the key to their new home beginning of this week.

“Jusuf is a friend of our organization, and he is a person who helps more in secret than publicly, but from time to time we manage to persuade him to publish some of his good deeds, primarily to encourage others to do good,” the organization said.

In Holdahl’s story on Forward Center, Nurkic followed up with comments regarding his kindness in his native country. Nurkic told Holdahl that the situation that the Memisevic family was living in hit close to home.

“I bought the house for the family who was really struggling back home,” said Nurkić via text message. “This family’s situation hit me hard. I saw a similarity. When I was growing up as a kid I never have my own room. This family has a kid and his only wish was to have his own room.”

You can read Holdahl’s full story by clicking here.