Draymond Green is still somewhere near his best, at least on the defensive side of the ball where the Golden State Warriors forward finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting last season behind Evan Mobley and Dyson Daniels.
While Green remains one of the Warriors' most important players, the same can't be said for Jusuf Nurkic whose once bitter rivalry with the 35-year-old has plateaued out much like his own career.
Jusuf Nurkic has been called out by his own national head coach
Nurkic's downfall has extended to the point of being called out by his own coach, with the veteran center currently preparing to represent his home country of Bosnia and Herzogovina at the upcoming EuroBasket which starts on August 27.
Yet according to national head coach Adis Beciragic, Nurkic isn't really preparing at all after the team was blown out by Nikola Jokic and Serbia in their first warm-up game, followed by a 102-90 loss to the less-fancied Montenegro on the weekend.
Beciragic stated that Nurkic "is out of shape and can barely run," not that the 30-year-old should have any excuses given his NBA season finished back in early April as a member of the Charlotte Hornets.
After being essentially salary dumped by the Phoenix Suns at the mid-season deadline, Nurkic has again found himself on the move this offseason after been traded to the Utah Jazz for Collin Sexton in June. Many were left critical of Utah's decision, and will be even more so now after these revelations on the state of his conditioning.
As for Green, he'll be having the last laugh on what was a prominent rivalry two seasons ago where the pair went back-and-forth verbally in the media following the Golden State legend's clumsy flagrant two foul during a game in December 2023.
Green was ejected from that game and received an indefinite suspension, having already been suspended for five games thanks to a chokehold on Rudy Gobert only weeks earlier. The rivalry reignited when the two next faced each other in February, with Nurkic claiming that Green hadn't learned anything and that it would be just a matter of time before he hit someone again.
Since then Nurkic's career has only gone south, having seen his role and output plummet last season while now being traded twice in the last seven months. His league relevance on the rebuilding Jazz might now reach a career-low, leaving his rivalry with Green as nothing but a minor thing of the past.