“Uncertainty Was Difficult”: Toronto Raptors’ Nick Nurse Reflects on His Struggles and Tough Times

People may mistakenly assume that the NBA is competitive just for the teams. But they must understand that there are just 30 head coaches to 450+ players. So in a way, it is more difficult to take that position. Nobody better than Toronto Raptors’ head coach Nick Nurse can understand this.

Nick helped the Raptors post a 58-game winning 2018-19 season, where they defeated a high-flying Warriors in the finals. His career’s first NBA title might appear to be an overnight success, but it was actually far from that. His offensive strategies helped players like Kawhi Leonard, but his decades of experience also added big.

Toronto Raptors’ head coach and his days of struggle

In a recent interview, Nick shed light on his days of going back-and-forth switching teams and coaching different sides. He expressed, “Well it’s tough, I think the toughest thing about it is, every season ended and you always wonder- where you’re gonna be next year? It was no multi-year deals in time, those kinds of things.”

Nick is an Iowa native and was raised alongside 8 siblings. One can imagine how that in itself would have been a struggle. But fortunately for him, he carried the sporty DNA of his father, who was a Basketball and Little League, Baseball coach.

Growing up, Nick played various sports (pole vault, football, baseball) and finally settled for basketball. During his time as a player in Northern Iowa, he made a three-pointer record of 170/363 (46.8%) shots converted over four years. Later, he began his stint with coaching at the tender age of 23.

Nick Nurse’s uncertain times before Canada happened

Mr. Nick gave his coaching services in cities like Iowa, South Dakota, England, Belgium, and Oklahoma. In his 30-year coaching career, the legendary coach has trained athletes in 15 different teams.

Remembering those days, the 2019-20 NBA Coach of the Year said, “The job I had in Belgium, it was where I always wondered where I was gonna be week-to-week. It was like you gotta win this game this Saturday or you’re packing yourself up several times during that season. So that uncertainty was difficult, but man looking back I loved all those jobs, and at that time in life, they meant the world to me, and I was just trying to get better at my craft and win.”

His credibility also comes from the fact that he is the only name to have coached in all the three (NCAA, Oversees Pro, and D-League) leagues. He won the 2011 Coach of the Year and championships with two teams in the D-league (now ‘G’). Then, the 53-YO became the assistant coach for the Raptors. In 2018, he was promoted as the head coach, and the rest, as they say, is history.