PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia 76ers bet everything Monday on their quest for the NBA championship, choosing veteran Nick Nurse as their new head coach as they try to win the franchise’s first title since 1983.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia 76ers bet everything Monday on their quest for the NBA championship, choosing veteran Nick Nurse as their new head coach as they try to win the franchise’s first title since 1983.
The 76ers signed Nurse, 55, after his departure last month from the Toronto Raptors, a person with direct knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the move.
Nurse led the Raptors to the 2019 NBA championship after beating Joel Embiid and the 76ers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Nurse will replace Doc Rivers, who was fired after he led the 76ers to their second straight 50-win season behind NBA MVP Embiid but again failed to lead them to the Eastern Conference finals.
The 76ers held a 3-2 lead in the semifinal series against Boston before losing Game 6 at home and were blown out in Game 7 on the road.
The 76ers have yet to decide if they will try to bring back veteran James Harden, but making a move for a championship-winning coach like Nurse shows the franchise is still willing to go for its first title in 40 years.
Nurse went 227-163 in his five seasons as coach in Toronto, where his .582 winning percentage ranks as the best of any coach in Raptors history. He also spent five years as an assistant to former Raptors coach Dwane Casey before assuming the top job.
Nurse played at Northern Iowa, then began his coaching career there as an assistant. He ended up becoming the head coach at Grand View University when he was just 23 years old. He coached in Belgium and Great Britain (he won a pair of British Basketball League titles as a coach in Birmingham in 1996 and London in 2000) and then went on to win a pair of titles. in what is now called the G League.
The second G League crown with the Houston team caught Nurse’s attention, with the Raptors calling because they wanted to talk to him about offense. They ended up hiring him as an assistant and he had been in Toronto ever since.
The Raptors finished 41-41 this season before losing at home to the Chicago Bulls in the play-in round of the postseason.
Sixers president Daryl Morey continues to build the team around his former connections with the Houston Rockets. In addition to Harden, and others, Nurse coached Houston’s G League affiliate Rio Grande Valley Vipers for two seasons while Morey was in charge. Nurse won the G-League title in 2013 before going on to a successful NBA career. He also won the 2020 NBA Coach of the Year award.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Dan Gelston, Associated Press
