Nick Nurse won’t have international basketball on his plate ahead of his first season as Sixers head coach.
Kings associate head coach Jordi Fernandez will replace Nurse as the Canadian men’s basketball team’s head coach, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Tuesday.
Nurse took over as Team Canada’s head coach in 2019 shortly after he led the Raptors to the franchise’s first NBA championship. He signed a contract extension in 2021 that ran through the 2024 Olympics. (At the 2012 Olympics in London, Nurse served as an assistant coach for Great Britain’s men’s basketball team.)
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In late April, when the Raptors fired Nurse, Team Canada indicated that he’d continue as head coach. Clearly, plans changed. Sportsnet’s Michael Grange reported that the time commitment was too much for Nurse and he helped Team Canada land on Fernandez as his replacement.
The FIBA World Cup will run from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10 and the Canadian men will aim to qualify for their first Olympic appearance since 2000.
Even without that assignment, Nurse figures to be busy. Free agency officially begins Friday night. The Sixers will play in both the Salt Lake City and Las Vegas summer leagues next month.