Jusuf Nurkic used NBA media day to question America’s love of guns

Jusuf Nurkic of the Suns sat down to do the standard NBA media day interview. What followed was anything but routine. Nurkic was asked what was supposed to be a fun question about what puzzles him when it comes to living in America, and the Bosnian player didn’t need to think too long before giving a heartfelt answer: Guns.

“I still don’t know why people have so many guns. I feel like, I still don’t understand to this day, because I feel the kids should be safe in our schools. I think personally, when you see even the fake guns on social media and kids in schools it’s a bad thing and sometimes you can’t control certain things with this media, all the social media we have platforms, but I think our kids, if we can, secure them the better world going forward it will definitely be without guns.”

I’ll admit that I totally get where Nurkic is coming from. My dad was born in New York, my mom is from Australia — and I was raised in Sydney. Guns simply weren’t something I ever needed to worry about as a child. There was violence, sure — but the most violent thing I can remember was a kid getting stabbed with a pocket knife during a brawl at a train station. He went to hospital, but survived. If we had widespread legalized guns he probably wouldn’t be.

Meanwhile my 6-year-old daughter has been through a lockdown already this year. My sister has been through two active shootings during her first semester at UNC.

Nurkic will likely get roasted for not “getting it,” but it’s fair to say it’s not something he’s used to. Bosnia and Herzegovina have a rate of 0.4 homicides by firearms per 100,000 population. Nurkic lives in Phoenix where the homicide rate is 7.9 per 100,000 almost TWENTY TIMES as much. Part of that is due to far less gun ownership (8.77 per 100 citizens vs. 33 per 100 citizens), but it’s also due to far stricter laws that permit police to seize firearms if someone is deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Nurkic could have given a total softball answer. He could have said “corndogs” and everyone would have had a good laugh, but kudos to him for actually answering the question thoughtfully.