NBA Champion Nick Nurse has officially been named head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.
Widely respected for his creativity and boasting a decades-long international coaching career, Nurse joins the 76ers after five seasons as head coach of the Toronto Raptors.
Now, get to know the Sixers’ new head coach…
- Nurse is a Carroll, Iowa native, attending Kuemper Catholic High School in Carroll, before playing college basketball at Northern Iowa.
- During his four-year college career (1985-1989), Nurse appeared in 111 games (40 starts). A prolific 3-point shooter, Nurse shot 46.8% from long range over the course of his career, making him Northern Iowa’s all-time 3-point percentage leader.
- Nurse’s coaching career began before he even left Northern Iowa, serving as a student assistant coach in his final season with the team.
- Following graduation (with a degree in accounting) Nurse spent a season as a player-coach for the British Basketball League’s Derby Rams (1990-1991).
- He began coaching full-time at the young age of 23, at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.
- Nurse had 10-plus coaching stops, domestically and internationally (earning a pair of British Basketball League titles), between 1989-2007, before joining the Iowa Energy (now Iowa Wolves) for the team’s inaugural year in the NBA D-League (now G League).
- Nurse spent 2007-2011 with Iowa, including winning his first D-League championship in 2011.
- Prior to the 2011-2012 D-League season, Nurse joined the Houston Rockets organization (and now-76ers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey) as the head coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
- In his second season with Rio Grande Valley, Nurse led the Vipers to the 2012-2013 D-League Championship.
- Following that title run, Nurse joined the Toronto Raptors coaching staff in 2013, serving as an assistant coach under Dwane Casey.
- Nurse succeeded Casey as Toronto’s head coach in 2018.
- As a first-time NBA head coach in the 2018-2019 season, Nurse led the Raptors to their first championship in franchise history, defeating the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals.
- Absent Kawhi Leonard in the Raptors’ subsequent season, Nurse led Toronto to finish the regular season with a 53-19 (.736) record, earning NBA Coach of the Year honors as a result.
- The Raptors finished second in the East that season, trailing only the 56-17 Milwaukee Bucks.
- Nurse remained in Toronto until 2023, joining the 76ers as head coach ahead of the 2023-24 season.
- As a head coach, Nurse boasts a 227-163 (.582) career record, the highest winning percentage for any head coach in Raptors’ history. Over his 10 seasons with the Raptors’ organization, the team held a .613 winning percentage, second only to the Golden State Warriors (.661) during that span.