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Nick Nurse is now the former head coach of two Canadian teams.
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A couple of months after the Toronto Raptors fired Nurse, he and Canada Basketball parted ways ahead of the upcoming FIBA World Cup this summer.
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Jordi Fernandez, a Sacramento Kings assistant who had interviewed to replace Nurse as Raptors head coach will take over, ESPN first reported Tuesday.
It was an unexpected pivot, since Canada Basketball had confirmed to Postmedia in a statement following Nurse’s firing by Toronto: “Canada Basketball and our Senior Men’s National Team coach, Nick Nurse, are focused on this summer’s FIBA Basketball World Cup and qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
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“Nick will continue to be our head coach, as we work to achieve our goals this summer and next.”
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But Nurse was subsequently hired by the Philadelphia 76ers and relocated. That made staying on with Canada too challenging. Multiple reports said Nurse helped identify Fernandez as his replacement. Fernandez, 40, is reigning NBA coach of the year Mike Brown’s right-hand man with the Kings and was also Brown’s assistant with the successful Nigerian team at the 2020 Olympics.
He also spent six years as an assistant in Denver to Michael Malone. Malone was previously an assistant coach with Canada under Leo Rautins.
Nurse had signed a multi-year extension with Canada Basketball in Aug. 2021, just over two years after he was first hired.
Canada’s senior men’s team is looking to build on an 11-1 record in World Cup qualifying to perform strongly in Asia this summer and eventually advance to its first Olympics since 2000.
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Nurse and the program had secured multi-year commitments from a number of NBA players, including superstar Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
It’s unclear if the other Canadian superstar, Jamal Murray, will be able to play this summer because he’s coming off a long championship run, which followed a comeback from a major injury. His participation has been considered unlikely, but he’d be expected to suit up should the team make the Olympics. Murray spent years coached by Fernandez when Fernandez worked for the Nuggets. Fernandez also coached Canadian big man Trey Lyles in both Denver and Sacramento and was close with Tristan Thompson when both were in Cleveland over a decade ago.
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