Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic doesn’t seem to care too much for his Philadelphia 76ers counterpart.
After the Blazers beat the Sixers on Thursday by the final of 114-110, Nurkic threw some shade at Joel Embiid with a bit of a backhanded compliment.
“He tries to be more famous than a player,” said Nurkic of Embiid, according to Dan Feldman of ProBasketballTalk. “I respect him. He’s a good player. He’s not about tough.
“He’s a skill player, who is getting tired, it looks like,” Nurkic continued. “And when you play defense on him and play offense on him and attack him, he’s getting tired more.”
Nurkic (21 points, 12 rebounds, 5-of-13 from the field) and Embiid (29 points, 9 rebounds, 9-of-21 from the field) dueled each other to a draw on Thursday, but the W for the Blazers was what really mattered. As for Embiid himself, he knows that his celebrity is a double-edged sword, and it’s hardly shocking that opponents are taking advantage of it when they can.
