Raptors fire Nick Nurse after 5 seasons as head coach originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Nick Nurse’s time in Toronto has come to an end.
The Raptors announced that they fired their head coach on Friday.
“This is an opportunity for us to reset, to refocus, to put into place the personnel and the players who will help us reach our goal of winning our next championship,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said in a statement.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
Nurse joined the Raptors’ coaching staff in 2013 as an assistant and held the role until 2018, when he replaced Dwane Casey as head coach.
Toronto won the NBA Finals in Nurse’s first year as head coach, earning the franchise’s first ever title. Nurse followed that up by earning NBA Coach of the Year honors for 2019-20.
Since 2020, the Raptors have failed to win a playoff series and have missed the playoffs completely in two of the last three campaigns. The team saw its 2022-23 season end in the Play-In Tournament with a loss to the Chicago Bulls.
Sports
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Nurse is a prominent candidate for the Houston Rockets’ head coaching vacancy. Houston fired three-year head coach Stephen Silas earlier this month.
Wojnarowski also reported that former Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka is expected to be a “serious candidate” for the opening in Toronto.
Udoka has also been linked to the Rockets and Detroit Pistons.
