Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse is the first former NBA G League coach to lead a team to the NBA Finals.
HoopsHype NBA writer Alex Kennedy tweeted the fact on May 29.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse is the first former @nbagleague coach to lead a team to the NBA Finals. Nurse is also the only coach to lead two different franchises to a G League championship.
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) May 29, 2019
Nurse coached the then NBA D-League's Iowa Energy from 2007 to 2011. He guided the Energy to the 2011 NBA D-League title. Several months later, Nurse became the head coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. He helped the Vipers win the 2013 NBA D-League championship.
Nurse spent five years as Dwane Casey's assistant with the Raptors from 2013 to 2018. After Toronto fired Casey after the 2017-18 NBA season, the team named Nurse its head coach.
Nurse guided the Raptors to a 58-24 (.707) win-loss record in the 2018-19 NBA season – his first year on the job. Under Nurse's leadership, Toronto earned the East's second seed and a sixth consecutive trip to the playoffs.
Article Continues BelowShould the Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals, the former will win its first NBA title. Not only that, but Toronto becomes the first Canadian team to win an NBA championship. Nurse will receive plenty of credit for that.
Nick Nurse will coach Team Canada at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, per @Ewingsports pic.twitter.com/9u9sikPNba
— Bleacher Report NBA (@BR_NBA) May 26, 2019
Nurse's recent success hasn't gone unnoticed. He agreed to become Canada's head coach in the upcoming 2019 FIBA World Cup in China this summer. Should Canada finish in the tournament's Top 7, it will secure a place in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. That would end a 20-year period without an Olympic appearance for the Canadians.
That will ultimately become another feather in Nick Nurse's cap.