Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois pokes fun at his own 6ft7 height as he poses next to 7ft Ivica Zubac: “Not many times I feel this short”

Ivica Zubac is one of the big men in the NBA, and the 26-year-old is already leaving his mark in the league. It isn’t surprising if a fairly tall person feels short in front of the LA Clippers' big man. Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois recently poked fun at his height after standing beside Zubac.

The Belgian professional soccer player posted a story on his Instagram in which he was standing beside Zubac. Though Courtois himself is as tall as 6ft7, he looked fairly short standing beside Zubac, who is 7ft3. The soccer player for the La Liga club and the Belgian national team captioned his story,

“Not many times I feel this short. Good seeing you my friend (Zubac).”

Zubac is one of the tallest men in the league and is having one of the best seasons of his career with the LA Clippers. He is averaging 12 points per game for the Clippers on 62.9 percent shooting from the field. He is also averaging 9.1 rebounds per game.

The Clippers were on a nine-game winning streak before they lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Ivica Zubac wants to be a force on defense for the Clippers

At the beginning of the 2022-23 NBA season, Ivica Zubac set a defensive goal for himself. Zubac wanted to be on the All-NBA Defensive Team. This season, he is already showing his impact on the defensive end for the Clippers.

"Making the NBA All-Defensive team is something I'm really working towards," Zubac said to AllClippers last season. "It's one of my goals coming into the season, just being as best defensively as I can be. If that's enough for one of the All-Defense teams, that would be amazing. I want to show people that I'm capable of that and for sure that's one of my goals," Zubac added.

Despite his minutes decreasing in the 2023-24 regular season, the Clippers big man has a better defensive rating and BPG this season compared to the last.

Last season, he had a defensive rating of 112 and averaged 1.3 blocks per game. This season, he has a defensive rating of 111.5 and 1.4 blocks while averaging almost two minutes fewer than the last.

Moreover, Clippers coach Tye Lue also expects the Clippers to fare themselves defensively now that they have both Paul George and Kwahi Leonard healthy this season. In his aggressive defense, Zubac would be the one anchoring the middle of the floor for the Clippers for a half-court lockdown defense.