Nick Nurse was once fired Friday as trainer of the Toronto Raptors, 4 years after he led the franchise to its first and handiest NBA championship.
Nurse went 227–163 in his 5 seasons with the Raptors, along with his .582 successful proportion score as the most efficient of any trainer in franchise historical past.
The ultimate 3 seasons have now not long past because the workforce deliberate. The Raptors overlooked the playoffs in 2021, a 12 months the place they had been compelled to name Tampa, Florida, house on account of the Covid-19 pandemic and the problem of having groups out and in of Canada for video games. They misplaced within the first spherical in 2022, and misplaced an removal sport at house within the play-in event this season.
“The decision to make a change like this is never arrived at easily or taken lightly, especially when it comes to a person who has been an integral part of this franchise’s most historic accomplishments, and who has been a steady leader through some of our team’s most challenging times,” Raptors President Masai Ujiri stated.
Ujiri known as the transfer “an opportunity for us to reset, to refocus, to put in place the personnel and the players who will help us reach our goal of winning our next championship”.
Nurse was once with the Raptors for 10 seasons, the primary 5 as an assistant. He advised in March that he may take a while after the season to come to a decision his personal long term.
“Just see how the relationship with the organization is and everything,” stated Nurse. “It’s been 10 years for me, which is an attractive just right run. Over the ones 10 years, now we have were given to be up there in collection of wins with somebody within the league.”
He was right: Only Golden State (.661) has a better winning percentage than Toronto (.613) in that timespan.
Former Boston coach Ime Udoka is among the coaches whom Toronto is expected to consider for Nurse’s replacement. Udoka, who has been close with Ujiri for years, led the Celtics to the NBA finals last season, then was suspended for this season after the disclosure of an inappropriate relationship with a female Celtics employee.
It’s also likely that Nurse will be considered for current openings in the NBA, given that he’s won everywhere he’s been.
Nurse played at Northern Iowa, then started his coaching career there as an assistant and wound up becoming a head coach at Grand View University when he was just 23. He coached in Belgium and Britain – winning a pair of British Basketball League titles as a coach in Birmingham in 1996 and London in 2000 – then got a couple titles in what is now called the G League.
The 2nd G League crown were given him spotted. He guided Rio Grande Valley to a identify in 2013 and that is the reason when the Raptors known as and sought after to speak to him about offense. They ended up hiring him as an assistant, and he is been with Toronto ever since.