It was way back in June, while he was soaking in a little summer sun in Mexico, when Damian Lillard first realized Jusuf Nurkic was going to be just fine.

Lillard and his family were on vacation, enjoying some R&R a few weeks after the Portland Trail Blazers’ thrilling march to the Western Conference finals. So, too, was Nurkic.

And in the middle of the relaxation and respite, the Blazers’ franchise cornerstones were also training. For Lillard, it was a part of his normal offseason workout. For Nurkic, it was an early venture into his long road back from a gruesome leg injury. As the close friends went to work, Lillard couldn’t help but grow reassured with each passing day.

“He was already ahead of schedule and moving and on top of things,” Lillard said. “And that was way back then. So right then, I started to get that feeling …”

A feeling that Nurkic was in a good place physically. A feeling that Nurkic was in a good place mentally. A feeling that Nurkic, despite the severity of his injury, was going to be just fine.

“Every time I talked to him (over the summer), he was training,” Lillard said. “That’s not made up. He was really trying to get going.”

The Blazers gathered Monday for their annual media day, a whirlwind of interviews, photo shoots, promotional stunts and video sit-downs that serve as an unofficial opening to the NBA season. And perhaps no player drew more curiosity than Nurkic, who had not given an in-depth interview since suffering multiple compound fractures in his left leg during a game on March 25.

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Nurkic arrived in good shape and in good spirits, sporting a mop of hair and a shaggy beard. He refused to put a timeline on his return — “I’m going to be back when I’m back,” he said — but said he was already doing a variety of basketball-related activities, including shooting and jumping, and had been running on a treadmill “for a while.” Most encouraging, Nurkic said, is that his leg has been “pain-free” for six months.

“I’m exactly where they want me to be,” he said. “So I think everything is good.”

The night Nurkic suffered his injury was devastating. For him and his teammates. After the Blazers outlasted the Brooklyn Nets in a double-overtime thriller, the locker room was so solemn and dejected, it felt like someone had died.

In the days afterward, as Nurkic coped with his depressing reality, teammates admitted he was struggling.

But, slowly and surely, Nurkic and the Blazers recovered. The team overcame his injury to produce its most successful season in nearly 20 years. And Nurkic, after the initial shock wore off, reassumed his gregarious, affable demeanor. In Game 5 of a cutthroat first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Nurkic famously surfaced along the Blazers’ bench late in the fourth quarter, providing a jolt of inspiration just before the dramatic victory.

He was already walking then, with the help of a metal rod that was inserted into his fractured leg. And now, more than six months later, he’s resumed light basketball work.

Nurkic stayed in Portland until the middle of July to set the foundation for his rehabilitation. Then, when he departed to Bosnia for the remainder of the offseason, the Blazers sent multiple members of their strength and conditioning staff to his hometown to provide Nurkic support, rotating them in and out to make sure someone was almost always nearby.

“We had someone with him, basically, constantly,” President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey said. “He did a great job. He stayed with us through the middle of July and then we had guys with him right up until Labor Day doing rehab with him. He’s in great shape. His weight is terrific. It’s right where we’d want him to be if he were playing. Now it’s just a matter of increasing his load and hitting all these thresholds and making sure we don’t accelerate things and end up having a setback. That’s the key.”

Olshey was “purposefully vague” about the nature of Nurkic’s rehabilitation and his return date, despite volunteering during a summer league television broadcast that Nurkic was on track to return in February. With the season on the horizon, Olshey said, he wanted to avoid “Nurk Watch 2019.”

As Nurkic crosses each “benchmark,” Olshey said the team would provide an update. Otherwise, he’ll continue to work behind the scenes.

And Lillard said his teammate has been working diligently. The Blazers spent most of September in town, gathering for daily volunteer workouts at the practice facility in Tualatin. When Lillard would saunter into the gym at 9 a.m. — about a half-hour before the scrimmages — Nurkic was already done with his workout, bolting away from the weight room or leaving the court to make way for his teammates.

Now on the eve of training camp, Nurkic has settled into a good place.

“He’s happy again,” CJ McCollum said. “It’s good to see him that way. He’s back to cracking jokes and being bubbly. I’m happy to see the progress he’s made, happy to see where he’s at.”

Despite the depressing nature of his injury, Nurkic said it was easy to stay positive. It helped returning to Bosnia, which allowed him to clear his mind and focus on each phase of his rehabilitation. He also managed to carry a little perspective.

“It was hard,” he said. “But it was definitely not a struggle. I don’t feel that way. Struggle is out there on the street, surviving. I look at myself and I have pretty much everything in my life. Whatever I ask for, God give it to me. My injury is just one setback in my job. Injury is part of the sport, so it’s part of the job. I was glad … as bad as it (looked), to kind of get away with the bone broken. It’s going to heal back and I’ll be good.”

Nurkic said he’s watched video of the play that led to his injury multiple times and still can’t believe a simple floater he’s attempted “a million times … for years” led to such a dramatic accident. But the bigger head-scratcher, Nurkic said, was the carelessness of referee Tyler Ford in the immediate aftermath of the injury.

As Nurkic writhed in pain on the court after fracturing his leg, Ford tried to step over the 7-footer as he left the paint and tripped over his injured foot/leg.

“I was more curious about when the referee kick me than just my injury,” Nurkic said. “I have some conversation with the league … referee. I don’t want to believe he did that on purpose. I don’t know … what my reaction should be, but I don’t think there’s a reason that anyone should step over an injured person.”

But that, much like the injury itself, is all in the past.

As he prepares for the next phase of his rehabilitation and his next NBA season, Nurkic is focused on the future and a triumphant return to the court.

“A lot of stuff you can’t control in your life,” Nurkic said. “This is just one part. I move on and I’m not looking back. All I care about is how I can get better.”

-- Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox