In this episode, Nick Nurse shares stories from his upbringing in Carroll, his passion for basketball, and his journey to becoming an NBA champion coach. We also explore the emotional tale of how he became the owner of Carroll National Golf Club. This is a must-listen for sports fans and anyone interested in personal stories of hard work and dedication.
John Ryan (Host) :
This is must know people it's john ryan with you here and today a special special guest that we've been trying to get on since the podcast began it hasn't worked out yet but today it's finally happening and this is so cool because we are here at Carroll National Golf Club with our special guest the owner of Carroll National Head Coach of the 76ers NBA Champion man that's a lot yeah
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Nick Nurse is here. Good morning. It's good to be here. You're right. We finally found a time. It's great. I kind of come in and out of town a little bit more often lately, which is great. The connection here with the golf course and everything gives me a great chance to get back. So it's great to see you and great to be on. Your show's great. I've been listening to it. You're doing a great job. Yeah, you know I listen to this.
John Ryan (Host) :
Where do you find the time?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Come on. Well, you know what? I listen to a lot of stuff. I always say I rest a lot. Maybe I don't sleep that great. But while I'm resting, I listen to a lot of stuff. And your show is one of them. And I listen to the station just about every day as well. Wow. That's great.
John Ryan (Host) :
I love that. Thank you so much for that, by the way. I was talking to a friend of yours last night. Who's that? He's building our deck, Doug Lighting. Oh, right. Awesome. Yeah. He's like, oh, Nick, yeah. He goes, yeah, played a lot of ball with him. And I thought, well, how'd you do against him? He goes, no, I played with him.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, yeah. He sure did. You're older than me? Yeah. Yeah. Good player. Good player.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah. So I thought about this, and I thought, I'm interviewing you, and you've been interviewed by just about everybody out there. I mean, everybody from my favorites, Dan Patrick, Rich Eisen, one of my all-time favorites there, Colin Coward and all that. Who the hell am I?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
To be talking to you, you know? Well, I tell you what, it's pretty surreal. Just like you, I'm big fans of those people, you know, listen to their shows. And then you end up being on their shows. Sometimes it's kind of funny to look back and kind of see that. But big fan of yours, so I'm here as well. Yeah, we're going to turn that around completely here.
John Ryan (Host) :
There are so many people that are way better... at analyzing basketball than I am. But I'm just going to say, you guys had a crazy good off season so far. I mean, you guys have been aggressive and all that. You've got to be thrilled for the upcoming season.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Oh, man, amazing. I think that if you look at a couple of things we needed to do, well, a handful of things really. We had an open roster. We had a lot of money, et cetera. You kind of got to go by tiers of what players are kind of in each tier. And obviously Paul George was the cream of the crop and kind of the star players available. And we got him. And then when you went to the next tier, Caleb Martin is arguably the top player in that tier as well. And we got him. We needed a really good veteran backup center because Joel's kind of in and out. Some, Joel Embiid, our starting center, MVP center, but had a tough year with injuries last year. We got Andre Drummond to fill that role in any games that Joel isn't there, who's also very good. We re-signed Kyle Lowry as a kind of veteran presence in the locker room just yesterday. Oh, wow. I did not know that. Yeah, and we got some more guys. We re-signed Kelly Oubre. We signed veteran shooter Eric Gordon. Did you put yourself in the championship conversation right there? Well, I think we've got to be a contender for sure. I think that we're in one of those little spots where I think everybody's going to say the Celtics are, no matter what anybody does, the Celtics are going to be the favorite, rightly so, clearly so. But I think we've got to be in the group of next best, yeah.
John Ryan (Host) :
I just wanted to get a little bit of 76ers talk in there.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, no problem.
John Ryan (Host) :
Like I said, people that know way more about it can ask way better questions than I can. But I want to talk about this place. I found you walking around this morning just kind of looking at everything and just kind of like, wow, this is really coming together. Do you walk out here and think, I own this?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, I do. I more like think that, you know, this place is kind of a special place to me in my heart. Like I think that, you know, Carroll in general, you know, I grew up kind of playing here. I certainly, like I got like three or four things I really love. And I always say, man, you got to really love what you love, right? And I love basketball, obviously. I love golf. I'm really proud of being from Carroll. And we just kind of came together like almost like – I don't know, it was good timing, meant to be, whatever. But yeah, I was walking around.
John Ryan (Host) :
How quickly did it all come together?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Did it come together quick? No, not really. I don't think anything like this does come together that quickly. It was, I can't really remember, John, but I got kind of a random email from one of the members because they were trying to decide what to do because obviously it was financially, it was struggling a little bit and just kind of wasn't what it used to be and all those kind of things. And And it's kind of, again, like if you think about things are meant to be, I literally got the email, I was on the course in Toronto where I was with the Raptors for a long time and I was playing with a friend of mine who owns a few courses up there, right? And I said, Hey, will you look at this email? And he literally went and looked at it and went to the website and looked at some things, did the little research. We got a few things going on and he just, he called me back and like said, you should do this. I think you can make it work and I'll help you. and that was a big step forward because, you know, he knew the golf business or out-of-run courses and all that kind of stuff. His name's Greg Seaman, and he helped me, and then I kind of had to get some other people in place. Luckily, my former high school teammate and classmate Michael Pringer decided to become our general manager. Brian Billmeyer, another guy I went to school with, was a former golf pro out in Arizona, and we just kind of, I thought, got what I tell them, they're my Mount Rushmore of people. I mean, we really We really had a good group of people like I couldn't think of it lined up better. So then it, you know, it always takes a while to get the deal done and I'll get through all the paperwork and clean everything up and all that kind of stuff.
John Ryan (Host) :
Did it feel like more pressure because this place was so special to you?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
no not really i just think that we have the idea uh originally of we didn't really want to like change all that much right we just needed to clean things up refurb some things kind of just hot kept everybody on you know just like we're gonna we're gonna like look at it and see what we got here for a year or two before we start making any huge decisions on which which way we're going but the biggest thing we needed to do was was get it back to looking pretty we put you know water back in the ponds we're putting some fountains in the ponds we cleaned up the pool we've cleaned up some of the trees we've everything is just kind of better the clubhouse as you can see new carpeting new painting new siding new windows new tvs new everything new restaurant opening soon all that kind of stuff just needed some energy and some life and we're heading that way
John Ryan (Host) :
You mentioned that you and your dad used to play here all the time, so that's why it's so special for you. But is there any other place around Carroll that is special for you like this place?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
I don't think so. When my parents were still alive and the nature of my job always let me come. I used to come back three weeks a summer. I'd always come back for a week right when the season ended. I'd come back for a week over the 4th of July, and I'd come back a week leading into Labor Day. And you're right, it'd be like I'd pull into the house and literally dad and I would turn around, come out here and play golf and we'd play every day. And he had his cart and he had the Cubs on the radio while we were playing and all that stuff. So yeah, just I really think it's great memories for me, but I think it's my favorite thing about golf. I don't really care if you're any good or not. I can hit the ball because I played when I was little. I don't really care about how good I am or take it too seriously. But you get to be outside. Nine times out of ten, you're with family and friends. And to me, that's what it's all about.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, it really is a great place to come out with the family and everything. You got the pool out here and things like that. So growing up in Carroll, you always loved to kind of brag about growing up in Carroll.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
What was it like for you? Well, the things that I find super interesting are this is I come from a big family. I'm the youngest of nine, right? Our whole block, I lived on South Elm Street, tucked back up in there. And everybody on the block had a lot of kids. And I just remember literally being outside with I don't know how many dozens of kids out there every night and just playing. It was kick the can one night and then play football the next or touch football and baseball. Anything you could think of that we'd just be outside playing. And I just can't. That part of being able to grow up was amazing. I think that the school was great, the sports. It's such a great sports town with such great facilities, such great passionate people. Hard working people, you know, just a lot of things that I think stick with you and end up benefiting you along the way. And I mean, you know, like the Midwest work ethic, you know, people talk to me about that all the time. Like, oh, my God, you work so hard. Yeah. I mean, it's just like. I don't know any other way. That's right. Don't know any better. You know, I mean, I think that you could have come out here on Memorial Day. I was here. I was painting that shed right there. People were like, what are you doing? I said, well, I don't know any better. When something needs to be done, you know, you start doing it. I want to help. I want to be part of this stuff.
John Ryan (Host) :
By the way, you said Elm Street. It's funny. The station had a beef, like a barbecue. Beef on block barbecue for the whole block. And Elm Street was their first winner.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Because it was such a cool street.
John Ryan (Host) :
Everybody had such a great time and they all loved each other. It was great. When did basketball become kind of your passion?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Well, I think that there's obviously a couple big things. One, five older brothers. I was playing from the second I could pick up a ball and hold it, I was dribbling around. What course did you play? Driveways or just what? Yeah, for sure. I mean, we had we had a hoop in the driveway and, you know, every every, you know, little nerve hoop and every number of those in the house and things like that. Every every corner you could find, you know, we could play at. We were doing that, but certainly had some spots. We played Rolling Hills Park. We used to play pickup games down there. Northside Park ended up being a spot where the games really became something there in the summer times. Guys would really make it a point to go there night after night in the summers. Those were some some great places and obviously the rec center. I can remember being there when it opened and being there when it closed a lot of times growing up as a kid. That was right, I think that was built right when I was like fourth, fifth grade, so. Perfect timing. Yeah, grand opening and just went with it there.
John Ryan (Host) :
Talked with Sean and Shelly Hluska, and they were talked about how formative it was for them to be at the rec center and how the older folks taught them how to play.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
It was something. I always gave you a place to go play no matter what the weather was. And then, again, an interesting pickup basketball situation there. Again, passionate people, lots of good players, lots of older guys that Maybe they weren't moving that great, but they really knew how to play and can really shoot. And they probably were moving pretty good too, to be honest with you, right? Like staying in shape and all that kind of stuff. They knew how to toughen you up too.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
100%.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Like really good basketball. Like guys that knew how to play the game, pass the ball, cut, move, compete. Like they wanted to win those games and stay on the court and all that kind of stuff, I think. That was always a big thing too. But you knew you had next level talent, right? I don't know about that. I mean, I played a lot of sports, right? And I think that just being in the environment I was in with the older brothers all playing and the competitive nature of that, it was going to be decent in all of them. Obviously, our high school team was really good, amazing group of guys. But when I was getting down to the end of it, I was kind of trying to decide, was I going to play football or baseball or basketball? And nothing really was materializing. We won the state championship in basketball, which kind of made that one kind of Jumped to the front a bit. That was 85, right? 85, yeah. And then actually what happened was I went to the Dr. Pepper All-Star Games. It happened to be at the Uni-Dome in Cedar Falls and had three really good games. And after the tournament, the coach came down and offered me a scholarship. And this is like late July leading into school starting in August. Oh, wow. You had no plans before that? Well, I had registered to go there, but I was still looking around. And I was planning on just kind of walking on in football and see what happened, and walk on in basketball, see what happened, and maybe try baseball and see what happened. So I got really lucky there. That basketball ended up working out for me there. And then, really, the next step was I was there and I got a degree in accounting. I was going to go be an accountant. And about my senior year, I was like, listen, I love basketball too much. I can't leave this. I'm not going to be an accountant for a while. And I started coaching and haven't accounted for much. Since then. That was a few years ago now. There you go.
John Ryan (Host) :
You got to go back to that 85 team, though, because everybody talks about, oh, it's the 85 team. But you guys were a team long before that. I mean, you were a group that was cohesive. What was the intangible about that team that made it a state championship to you?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Just a lot of things. I think that, you know, I always say that we were kind of sitting there in the front row at Kemper games when we were, like, in fifth and sixth grade. Like, the whole crew of us, like, we'd be there in front row. Did you sit on the stage? Because they had the stage and everything in one gym. We sat on the stage a lot, and we sat on the front row of the other side a lot, too. Just, you know, total, like... idolizing you know the players you know they were going to the state tournament and that you know that gym was packed with fan and I don't know I guess we were we were dreaming then about being a good team and a chance to try to win a state championship but a lot of a lot of things come together for that right amazing team Wayne Chandler was an unbelievable coach and and just just kind of kept working at it and kept and we got there you know it's funny when you're a kid the place seems huge
John Ryan (Host) :
If you were to go back and see it now before it was remodeled, I remember calling games there. And you had to sit on the stage and you had to tuck your legs into this little cubbyhole thing. Horrible place to do a game.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, it was a narrow court too. The opposing teams used to complain about it, call it the bowling alley and all that kind of stuff. But it helped our defense, that's for sure. Pressure defense.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, you don't have to guard side to side all that way. So what would you tell a younger player coming up now what they need to do to get to kind of your level of success, to get to the next level of college?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Well, I mean, obviously things have changed quite a bit, but you know. The game has changed, but what you put into it hasn't, is it? Is that true? Yeah, I think that I still am a big advocate of playing multiple sports. I really thought that that was a big help. I'm a big advocate in, like, you know, I just think that the not focusing sometimes on it helps. I don't know. I just like the little bit of off-season where you're not doing it all the time. But, you know, again, it was for me, playing all those sports, it really was total dedication. You know, like, if this was 1984 right now, I'm sure, you know, it's 7 in the morning here. We're up early. I would have been up early. I would have been running or shooting or lifting or something to get ready for the season, whatever sport it was. Level of dedication is obviously super important. Playing games is super important. I think playing those pickup games, you learn a lot. Playing against better, older players, you learn a lot. All those things. Was there anything about UNI that was special for you? Tons of things, man. It was a little changeover. The program was struggling when we got there. Eldon Miller came in from Ohio State. I credit those guys, Eldon and Wayne Chanley, for giving me two incredible basketball experiences. They were great coaches, taught me tons about the games. I still use tons of drills that those guys taught me. But I just mean the experience of what it's like to impact people and the impact they made on me and the impact they made on all my teammates and all those kind of things that I thought I wanted to pass on to people. pushes you into coaching. You want to see people reach their potential or exceed even what they think they can become, you know, on or off the floor. And I think those guys, both Wayne Chandler and Elder Miller, gave me those experiences. It was an incredible experience in Northern Iowa.
John Ryan (Host) :
It's funny how you got into coaching because I know you said you went to play in England. You know, I just extend the career, have a little fun. And you didn't realize that they wanted you to be a player coach. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like, there's your first coaching experience, right? A shoot going, oh, OK, I'm the young new guy, and I'm the head coach.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, that was funny. What team was that with? That was with Darby. The team was called the Darby Rams, and it was about 100 miles north of London. What happened there is I was a graduate, I was a student assistant at Northern Iowa finishing up my degree. I had like 11 credits to finish up after my fourth year. So I stayed, and in the middle of that season, I got a call from a team needing a point guard. And I was like, well, geez, I'm not really in shape, not in shape anymore. So I started getting in shape, working, getting myself back ready to go play for this team. And I spent a couple months doing that, and it kept getting kind of delayed. And then it kind of fell through. And then here I was. I was like in game, you know, like preparation shape. I was back in shape and playing a lot and started looking for a job. And I got offered a job in Germany. And that same day, I got offered this player coach job, quotes. Yeah. I'm using my quote fingers now to go to England. And I decided, yeah, you know, I kind of want to coach. So I'll do the player coach thing. And I think I was about 22 years old. And and just got on the plane and went for it, man.
John Ryan (Host) :
Something stuck, because you stuck with coaching. Yeah.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Right? Yeah, it was fun. You know what it was like? It was almost like being the point guard on a team without a coach. Because I was a point guard, and that kind of lead and call and plays my whole career, high school, college. And that's kind of what it was like. It was, it was funny though. I mean, I had a, I was like 22, I had a 35 year old center, you know, most of my, you know what I mean? Most of my guys were, were older. I mean, almost all of them were older than me. We did have a few younger guys, but, but that was just, um, strange, but you know, it's, it's a lot like anything I learned there that leading by example goes a long way. Right. And I was, I was, you know, we'd run sprints at the end of practice. I'd try to win them, you know, like everyone push everybody else. And, And we're out there playing, and I just had to play really hard. And a couple cool things was I didn't sub myself out much, and I gave myself the green light. That's one benefit of being a player coach. Didn't shoot too many. Did you shoot logo threes? I shot a lot of threes. I mean, even this was like in 1990, 91, whatever it was. And we did. We were ahead of our time. We had four three-point shooters, and we were bombing and all that kind of stuff. It was really fun. Really, really fun experience.
John Ryan (Host) :
How different was the European and the English version of basketball as compared to here? It's a little more wide open, right?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Well, that was really something different. After being in a big-time college program, right? good, right? You know what I mean? And we went over there and it was like we only had two scheduled practices a week. We practiced on Tuesdays and Friday nights. And it was like, and we played every Saturday night. It was, you know, so getting things together and getting guys together on other days and all those guys, some of them were working. You know, we had about five probably full-time pros, and the rest of the team was guys that were kind of semi-pro guys. And just figuring all that out, the rhythms of it and all that stuff was interesting. But, you know, then it kind of led to a lot of stuff. I just kind of liked it. I started getting a little bigger jobs.
John Ryan (Host) :
I was going to say, when were you sold on coaching? They're like, hey, this is what I want to do. I'm in on this. Right.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
You know what, I probably wasn't totally sold until the second time I went back to England. So I did that job for a year. Then I got the Grandview job. Then I went to South Dakota. Then I decided, you know what, I think I like pro coaching, and I'm going to go back to England. And I went back there, and then I was like kind of midway through that season, I was like, I'm either going to do this or I'm not, right? And I kind of was trying to figure out what else I wanted to do, and I wrote a few things down, and they all looked – like uh things I can't say look look bad to me it didn't look good to me the other the other options I said I better get coaching and I was about 26 then that was probably the turning point where I said it's time to go for it did you physically write a list yes I did I was on that list you remember yeah I do I don't I don't know if I want to I was like It likes real estate, you know, run a recreation department. It was like, you know, none of it's insurance, you know, just jobs, you know. And I was just like, those don't look as good as coaching to me. So I'm going to dig in here. I really, really started studying the game. I was really fortunate to have a lot of interesting people come into my life along the way that – but sent me on a path I thought away from X and O's. You know, I obviously studied that like crazy. Like I used to.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah. You're known as an innovative offensive coach. I mean, that's, that's.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
I mean, I obviously studied all that. Like, like I, you know, I can remember back in the days when, when I, I guess I would say I got the pro bug. I was back in the VCR days. I was taping every NBA playoff game and had a second VCR and doing edits and rewatching end of game things and making all these, charts on how to you know so I certainly studied that but I think I got veered way more into the sports psychology side of it the building chemistry how to get guys to play harder all those kind of things and that's what I started experimenting with I guess is the only word I can think about and and what I started to do was I really was taking like any little group I'd go to Italy for a couple weeks in the summer and coach a summer league there and just to get a group of guys together and see what I, you know, see what we could do with them. Experiment on it a little bit. Yeah, and I'd go to Long Beach and go to a summer league there and I coached in the USBL and Enid, Oklahoma. It's kind of like if you had a team, I'd coach it because I was just so interested to see work on those dynamics of two things, really, cohesiveness and playing harder. What can we do to play harder than the team we're playing and what can we do to be more connected and those all those things and I was really studying and reading a lot and talking to a lot of people about improving in those areas so I think I was really fortunate to kind of come across some people in those areas
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, it's funny that the professional level of coaching is more about psychology than it is about X's and O's and fundamentals and things like that, I would assume, right?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, I think for sure. Managing egos. Yeah, I think for sure it's about, again, what I talked about. Can you get people to believe in what we're doing, what we're doing, right? I always say you've got to trust yourself. You've got to trust your teammates. You've got to trust what we're doing, those three things. So I think that it is a lot about it, John. But I think that I always say it's probably 85% of it. The X's and O's is about 15%. but I always put in this, but, but that 15% buys you so much credibility. Like when you call that first time out and they give you the board and you can, you got to drop that play and you get them a shot. Like all of a sudden they start listening to your other 85%. If that makes any sense, you know what I mean? So they really, I know what I'm talking about. You gotta know. Yeah. You gotta, especially in the pros. Like I think they're, they're, they really, people ask me this all the time. what's it like coaching those guys and all the money and the egos? And I, they really want to be coached. They want you to help them. They want you to prepare them. They want you to give you great, great, great game plans and all that stuff. But you better know what you're doing too, right?
John Ryan (Host) :
You better know what you're doing. So financially coaching is not a windfall starting out by any means. What was it like for you to start out? And at any points, did you really struggle with that end of things?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, 100%. I think it went a long time without probably really what you would call making any money, just trying to- Learning your craft. Yeah, learn the craft, stay employed. I don't know how many springs in a row it was like, where are we going next or what's happening next? And I guess, again, I was fortunate. I mean, especially in the pros, like you got to win, man. You got to win. And then when you're moving, jobs are usually taking over something that's been really wrong somewhere. You know, that's why they need a new coach. And you got to go in there and rebuild the culture and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, it took a long time. I think, again, the exact years, I'm going to say 20 plus years before I got in the NBA. You know, coaching England, USBL, Long Beach Summer League, Grandview, South Dakota, Enid, Oklahoma.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, I mean, you literally have coached on every single level. Just about, yeah, just about. And you've won at about every single level.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Just about, just about, yeah.
John Ryan (Host) :
So what do you attribute that to? Is it just your preparation, your planning?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
I mean, I don't know.
John Ryan (Host) :
Because that's huge.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Kudos to you. Well, I think it's, I think, you know, if you want to try to analyze it or get down to it, I mean, it does come down to competition, right? And, you know, I used to tell my teams all the time, and I still do, like, you know, there's 30 teams out there all going for the same thing, right, in the NBA. There was 18 in the G League or D League. It was the D League when I was there. whatever, 12 teams in your conference. And I always said, listen, my goal is to outwork all the other coaches. That's what I'm going to try to do for you guys. You're just not going to fall short on that with me. So I need you guys just like kind of take that same approach but but again i think that uh i give a lot of credit to just the environment i grew up in right i think that you know i tell the story of you know when you got nine kids in the house like you know you get up you better get up early or there's not going to be any you know i get up and you're fighting for fighting for some cereal and you're fighting for a bowl and you're fighting for milk and you're fighting for a spoon and it kind of goes on like that right and that ends up being a really great environment to to compete in And I don't know, once that ball goes up, man, it's time to start competing to win. And that's part of the passion I think is in there. I think it came from a lot of just a lot of my upbringing.
John Ryan (Host) :
Talk about the first job you got in the NBA. I mean, that's the dream is the NBA. What was that first job? What was your feeling? What were you just feeling that whole time?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, so I was kicking around in the D-League, you know, obviously with the Iowa Energy. Then I went to Rio Grande Valley. And won the championship there. Yeah, yeah. And then the Toronto Raptors called me up. I think their president, Brian Colangelo, had watched our team play. He didn't know you? personally i don't think so uh i might have met him or something like i don't think we didn't really like know each other just a little bit i kind of hung around you know i hang around a lot i always still people ask me how do you get in the nba i said well how do how do actors get into you know you go to hollywood you know you got to go where it is i'd always be around nba events so yeah i'd met him a couple times but he saw our team play and he was like liked i think it was our offense he liked the way it was moving and things like that and they called me up and wanted to talk to me went up there a few guys in a room and a big dry erase board. And they were like, you know, show us, show us what you, how you do what you do. And so I sat up there and just started saying, here's the whole philosophy behind our offense, you know, and, you know, a few hours later they were, they were wanting me to come up and help them, help them with their offense. So, That story is a little more complicated than that because they they offered me the job. It was like it was like a Sunday and they said they'd send me the contract Wednesday. And I said, like, why Wednesday? And they said, well, it's kind of like the new year. They have options on their contract and all that. Well, I woke up Wednesday morning. I was actually in Carol. I woke up Wednesday morning and said they'd let them all go. And then Masai Ujiri got hired. He did keep Dwayne Casey as the head coach. And then I formed a relationship with Dwayne and he still ended up about six weeks later, ended up going to summer league and, and working for the Raptors. But yeah, I mean, thinking back. So that was a long. about way it was it was yeah i didn't make anything easy getting there we'll see the contract wednesday was not the same thing yeah it wasn't easy and none of it none of it was easy getting there but uh yeah once we got there when you signed that contract though how did you feel felt awesome and again the story is i was i was it was kind of things were in flux i literally hadn't signed the deal i thought i was going there vegas summer league was starting just like it is now like i just flew in from vegas this morning i told dwayne listen i've coached the summer league teams before when the d league itself i'll coach the team like you really have a staff yet and uh And I was out there coaching the staff. And literally, we were in a high school in Las Vegas getting ready to start practice, literally. And Masai Ujiri walked in. We went into the high school coach's office. He put a contract down. I signed it. When I walked out the door, blew the whistle, and huddled everybody up, the first practice started. So that's how that went. No time to celebrate.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, no time to celebrate. Did you buy yourself anything to celebrate later on?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
No, I didn't. No? I didn't. I do remember just getting going, man. And that's kind of what it's about. I just think that there's always kind of the next thing to do. And we just literally practiced, and the game started. It was a long time ago. Jonas Valanciunas was playing for us at Summer League. He's been around for a while now. There's some names from the past there, yeah.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, for sure. So how long, just a couple years between that and you being named head coach?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
No, five years.
John Ryan (Host) :
Oh, it wasn't five.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Five years as an assistant.
John Ryan (Host) :
To everybody else, it doesn't seem long. To you, it has to probably seem like an eternity, right?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Well, I was 10 years in Toronto. which is five as assistant and five as head coach. That's a long time, really, in coaching, especially in NBA life, to be lucky enough to stay one place for 10 years. But, yeah, five years and five years, yeah.
John Ryan (Host) :
How about the head coach job? I mean, clearly you obviously wanted that job. And so how did that go in the hiring process? And how did you feel when you signed that contract? Because then all of a sudden you're the guy. You're responsible for everything.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, that one was also interesting. And so we were having some really good seasons there in Toronto. I went in 48, 55, 59 games one year. And I was getting, I actually interviewed, I thought I was going to get a head coaching job the next year. I interviewed at Phoenix and interviewed at Charlotte. Um, the Detroit job came open. I was getting ready to go interview there and it was, it was kind of weird. All of a sudden I was getting to the like stage where the owners were coming. Like I was going to meet Michael Jordan and the Phoenix owners were flying to Toronto and, and it looked like I was getting ready to get off of these jobs. And all of a sudden they started disappearing a little bit. And, and, um, I was kind of wondering, wondering what was going on, but But Toronto interviewed me as well, waited about six weeks, interviewed me a second time, and then gave me the job, obviously, and then the whirlwind. Once you get the job, the whirlwind hits.
John Ryan (Host) :
So taking that head coaching job, probably in Toronto, would have been the easiest thing because you're familiar with the organization, you're familiar with everything. So you really got lucky that way.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
100%.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
I shouldn't say lucky. You earned it. No, super lucky. That's exactly a couple things. One is I knew the whole locker room. And even probably more intimately than as an assistant, you're in there kind of with those guys even more than you are as a head coach. And we had a great team. And then I don't know what it was, maybe a month after I got the job, we signed Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. We got in as part of the deal as well. So all of a sudden, we were really, really good. And yeah, so that was super fortunate.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah. How much does a coach have to do with the roster? Do you have a ton of input? Yeah. You have your, what do you think? Yeah, for sure. But do you have a lot of that input saying, oh, this is the guy we need. We want this guy.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, for sure. Obviously, the front offices make the final call and all that stuff. And it differs from team to team. But, yeah, you're working hand-in-hand with, like, what do you want, what kind of style of play, what do you think our team needs, et cetera. And it's super complicated, John, trust me. These last three weeks, we had a whole roster to fill and figuring all this out and the salary cap and who's at what level and how it all fits in and how it affects the taxes. You tell me you didn't put your accounting degree to work there? I put it to use every day.
John Ryan (Host) :
Talk about NBA coaches. Are you guys competitive with each other, or do you get along? Is there a fraternity of coaches and things? Yeah.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Both, I think.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah, for sure you're competitive. So who would be some of your good buddies and head coaches?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, well, obviously I'm really good friends with Chris Finch, Timberwolves coach. We worked together. We coached against each other in England. We worked together with the great Britain national team in the 2012 Olympics. Quinn Snyder's a good friend of mine. Kicked around with him in the league as well. Chauncey Billups has become a good friend of mine. Teron Liu knows Spolster really well. So yeah, you get to know a lot of them.
John Ryan (Host) :
You're friendly, but when it's come time for competition.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, and you know, it's a little bit strange. You're kind of in and out so much that there isn't a whole lot of interaction during the season. Like you come to the city, you're preparing like crazy. You're watching film. You're having a walkthrough. You're having a shoot around. I literally come to the game. I always get there about just before 90 minutes before the game. I always have a road press conference that starts 90 minutes before the game. So I get there just before that. You're again prepping. You go out. The NBA is not a whole lot of handshaking and stuff before or after, right? And before you know it, you're on the bus and flying to another city. And once the season gets going, at this time of year, like I was over at Team USA practice the other day, obviously, and get to see all the guys. Everybody's there watching Team USA versus Team Canada. And you get a chance to sit down and talk to the guys and stuff and stop and talk to them. Yeah.
John Ryan (Host) :
Kawhi dropped off the team.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
It's too bad. Yeah, I think so. I'm not 100% sure. I think, obviously, he was saying he wanted to get ready for the season. He's had some tough finishes here lately.
John Ryan (Host) :
Talk about the season getting ready for it. How do you get ready for a new season? Is every season different? Yes. There's no carryover from the season before?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
No, there's carryover. But every season, I always say, tells its own story. And obviously, we've got a whole new roster. I mean, we've got Maxie and Embiid, kind of one and five at the bookends, kind of, and everybody else in the middle. But mostly new players. A few guys coming back. Oubre, I mentioned, and a couple of young guys, Ricky Council, et cetera. You know what it's like now, John? It's like – I'm going to go back to Vegas tonight. Some of our veteran guys are coming in to watch our summer league team play. I'll be going to lunch with Maxie and Drummond just to see how they're doing, just start talking about – what it formulates, listening to them and see how they're seeing it and, and all that kind of stuff. And the, and you just kind of planning what you're doing is the vision is starting to formulate. And I think each year I try to lay out a vision for the season. And at some point before day one of training camp, I'm going to, I'm going to have that vision and we're going to, we're going to, the first meeting we're having is always about here's, Here's what we did last year. Here's what we're going to fix. Here's what we liked. Here's what we're keeping. Here's what we're throwing in the garbage can. Here's what we're going to do. So you kind of lay out the vision. That's what you're doing this time of year.
John Ryan (Host) :
And I suppose the more honesty you lay out at that point, the better off you are. Because if you're blowing smoke saying, I'm going to gloss over that fact that we need to change something about you or your game, it all has to come out in the laundry, right?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
We deal in facts, right? And we usually back a lot of those facts up with video evidence. Right? So we will. We'll look at things we did great. Like, I don't know, we were really good. I don't know, second in the league in free throw shooting percentage last year. Well, is that because of coaching? Yeah, we did some things we thought as a team the players bought into that helped us. So we'll keep that. What do we need to shore up on the rebounding end? What did we do? We'll put the numbers up of our pick and roll defense, our low post defense, our double teaming, our zone. And you just got to kind of say, this was good. We're going to polish that. This wasn't good. We're not going to do that anymore. Or here's how I see this roster. We've got two bigs now. Are we going to do more things that keep those guys closer to the rim? Are we going to get out and switch everything? There's a lot going on. Yeah. absolutely it's it's mind-boggling i don't know how you keep it all straight but i want to shift gears talk about your family yeah tell me about them your wife your kids wife is roberta yeah um got three kids i got son noah uh who's 20 who's doing an incredible internship right now in dc um and i got leo who's seven and rocky who's five and i named him rocky before we moved to philly
John Ryan (Host) :
There was no kissing up to Philadelphia in that one. So your wife was an athlete, right? So that's got to help when she's got to understand your schedule and all this stuff.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, she's a coach too. She's a volleyball player. She played volleyball at Florida Gulf Coast University. And she was also, I met her when I was down in the Rio Grande Valley. She was coaching the University of Texas Brownsville down there. And that helps. Yeah, she understands the coaching mode for sure. And I'd like to say about her is she is the most composed person I've ever met, and that really helps me. She doesn't get rattled by anything, which is great. I look up sometimes during the games, and the whole place is going bananas, and she's as calm as can be. I don't know how she does it, so it's a really good fit for a coach. Everybody needs that.
John Ryan (Host) :
Are you a – you know, an emotional guy on the sidelines, you know what you just hear?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
It's an emotional coach. For sure. I think, I think, um, that's one of the things people say to me about the, a lot, you know, like, gosh, you seem so laid back. And I think I am until the ball goes up. And then, and then, I mean, listen, I think it goes, um, in waves a little bit, I can sit there as calm as Phil Jackson, you know, as sometimes, you know, and at times I got to get after the team and I got to get after whoever else is influencing the game out there and try to, you know, show my team I'm fighting for them. I think Yeah, I would say you're definitely going to see passionate side of me while the game's going on. And sometimes it gets the best of me, I'll be completely honest. But I really believe that my teams play really hard because they know how badly I'm competing right there with them.
John Ryan (Host) :
Does your wife ever give you a little coaching advice saying, hey, maybe you wanted to back off here?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
100%.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Not on that kind of stuff, but she gives me a lot of coaching advice, yeah. I always say to her when I first met her, she didn't know what a double dribble is, and now she's telling me what players to sign. She's a GM now. For sure. Your boys basketball crazy? Not yet. No, not yet. My oldest son is politics crazy. He's doing an internship in D.C. He's actually at the White House. His name is Noah. He's doing an internship there. Leo's kind of a multi-sport guy. He actually played ice hockey when we were in Toronto. He plays baseball and stuff. But I'm hoping they like music and sports and they learn some lifelong sports that they can play their whole lives.
John Ryan (Host) :
Are they around the players a lot?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Not quite yet. A little bit, but not quite yet. You know, any probably mom would tell you this, that, you know, those games are late and they're trying to get home and get to bed for school and all that kind of stuff. But, yeah, they'll start to, I think, as they get a little older, yeah.
John Ryan (Host) :
Talk about how do you carve out time for your family? Because that's got to be really hard, especially in season. Like you said today, I mean, you flew in this morning. You're here at this event. They're going to have the chamber of coffee here. So you're going to talk to folks about that. Then you're flying back to Vegas tonight. I mean, that's a hectic schedule.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah. Yeah, it is. And it goes and it is very difficult. And there's times when it gets hard when you're on the road and, you know, your little boy or your oldest boy wants to talk to you, you know, and you do. You know, thank God for FaceTime and all those things now where you can do some of that stuff. You know, I kind of say there's a balance there. I do get some times where I get to spend a ton of time with them that I think is kind of, you know, like weeks at a time in the summer where you're not doing stuff or, you know, four days straight, you know, just, you know, where you get to be with them. constantly and i think that's that's good too where where there's enough off-season time there's enough trips that they get to join on you know things like that as well and just try to do the best like try to limit what you're doing right um that's that's the big thing it's it's the job present when you're 100 100 and that that's i hope i'm pretty good at that i think everybody always need work at that but i think i'm pretty good at that i don't I don't – even yesterday I was flying on the plane. These people are like, you look way too calm to be a head coach of a basketball team. I was like, we don't have any games coming up. What do you want me to do? Like jitter in my seat. I'm like, no, I'm good. And I think I do leave it there at the court in the game.
John Ryan (Host) :
Again, like – That's got to be hard.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
no I just I just think again it's just part of the instincts of it I think that no matter and that's good because I think a lot of my training like you know I always say you know I was I was selling programs and popping the popcorn and at a lot of the jobs I had and then the game would start you'd have to start coaching you know it isn't like you're in this total trance of focus of the game and a lot of these jobs as you're going and and it's the same now you know you're doing media you're you're in the training room seeing who's playing who's not like and then all of a sudden it's time to get out there and coach the game and you kind of lock in so i think you know you get you kind of train that way to be that way and i think i think that helps tell me about the nick nurse foundation when did it start what do you guys do yeah so we um started it after we won the championship in 2019 in toronto we just figured all of a sudden we had this uh great platform where we thought we could get out and raise money and then pump it back into the communities we raise it in I said, love what you love. I really believe in sports. I really believe in music. I really believe in education. So we pump it back into those three areas. Started it in Toronto, got it going pretty good. It still runs up there. Like I said, where we raise the money, we spend it. We're still running tons of camps and music programs and scholarships for kids. buying instruments, buying lessons, putting kids in situations that they can play and learn music, play and learn sports, play and learn anything, literacy, education, anything like that. So that's the main thing, shifting it now a little bit. Here, we're gonna have an event, as you know, coming up with the golf course. All that money will stay locally. Probably most of it will go to music and arts. I already do a lot in the sports in the town, as you know. And I just believe in, again, I believe in that stuff. Like I told you, I play some music. I play the piano and guitar. I just think it gives me such joy that I want people to have that opportunity to learn it while they're young and be able to have those same kind of experiences.
John Ryan (Host) :
There's a lot of comparison between music and athletics. I mean, it's practice, practice, practice. It's fundamentals. It's doing all that stuff. So I can see the parallels.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah. And for me, it's like, again, it's a total like be on the road. I take my my I got a keyboard I take and a guitar with me on the road. I don't I'm watching film for a lot and stop. I can't watch film 24 hours a day. So I stop that a lot. Play some music for a while. It's a great it's a great like zone to get in for me. And yeah, and I just get I don't know. I just get so much joy out of it.
John Ryan (Host) :
All right, so if you've heard the podcast before, you know we wrap up with some rapid-fire questions and things like that. So how OCD are you? I always think coaches have got to be this way. Are you a clean freak? Are you OCD about something? No, not at all.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Not at all? I mean, I would just say I'm fairly neat, right? Yeah. If you would visit me on the road, and you'd come into my hotel room, and you'd say, wow, your room's, you know, I keep my things nice. You know, I worked at a clothing store in Carroll when I was a kid, and I learned how to fold really good. I worked at Britches and Things. Britches? That's a new one. I still fold my clothes really well. But no, not super OCD about it.
John Ryan (Host) :
You don't fold the laundry at home, right?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
100%.
John Ryan (Host) :
Do you? 100% I do.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Love that. Favorite holiday? Fourth of July. Really? Yeah, I just think that once once that was kind of the family one, you know, once everybody kind of had their own families, Christmas and that people were scattered across. And then we just always made Fourth of July the one where we always actually all kind of committed to and got together. So that one for me.
John Ryan (Host) :
So every time I have ever texted you, you've gotten right back to me, which stuns me. I'm just like, you've got way more important things to do than text me back or something. So what's your most used phone app? Most used phone app?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Holy smokes, that's a good one. Apple Music, probably for sure. I constantly got that. And Simple Radio, I'm telling you, I listen to KCI. I swear, if anybody listens to KCI more than me, I want to know who they are. I wake up, and it's funny, and I tell Kim this all the time too, and even some of the other stuff. You're out in this whirlwind running around all the time. It's like settling for me. I literally wake up and I say, oh, geez, those guys aren't on yet. I'm waiting for 6 a.m. Iowa time to hit or whatever. I say, what time do you get up? I'm up early. You're up early? I'm an early to bed, early to rise type of guy.
John Ryan (Host) :
How about social media? Are you big on to that? Don't have any. None?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
No. I'll tell you my story on that. Just like everybody else, I had Facebook way back, and I got home from a game. I think we were playing the Miami Heat in the playoffs, I think my first year in coaching, and I had I don't know how many messages from people saying, this guy can't guard Dwayne Wade. What are you guys doing? And I was like, that's the end of this, and I've never gone back.
John Ryan (Host) :
i've never gone back do you miss it at all no not at all i mean i have i have it my foundation has it but somebody runs it for me obviously we have it here at the course i i you have to do some things in it for sure but i know i don't miss it earlier in the conversation you mentioned that they're on my mount rushmore of influences and things like that so growing up i was a celtics fan i think you were too right give me your mount rushmore of players growing up that you idolized
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Well, geez, younger, younger, you're right. I was Larry Bird, you know, Kevin McHale, Danny, all those guys. That was, I think, all we're watching that. It's kind of like the only teams that were on back then was the Celtics, Lakers, and Sixers, I think. Maybe the Knicks got sprinkled in there once in a while, right?
John Ryan (Host) :
I even go back further to Hondo, Havlicek, Dave Collins, and all those guys.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
For sure, remember all those guys, for sure. But you know what? I think that, and again, everybody's going to say this, When I went in 95 to England, I was running the triangle offense. I really loved it. I just thought it was so different than what everybody else was doing. And I was, this is so funny because this is like so dated, right? But I went to England and there was hardly any basketball on TV. And I found a company down in Germany, Pontell was its name, that would send me a video cassette every Friday. They'd mail me one in my hotel in England where I was staying with three Bulls games on it. And I'd put those in and study them and watch them. I'd probably watch them. I don't know how many. I had nothing else to watch. And I was really trying to study basketball at the time. So obviously, like Jordan in that era, I was totally, totally fascinated by. And I always tell everybody Phil Jackson was my mentor, but he didn't know it. And I was just studying everything he did from timeouts to subs to everything. And then I finally got to meet him one day, and that was amazing. And I went out to spend some time with him in Montana, like three days. It was unbelievable. You ever meet Bill Walton? Yeah. He just recently passed. Yes, I did.
John Ryan (Host) :
And everybody's got a Bill Walton story, it seems like.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, unbelievably great guy. He was doing some TV. I just did, not that long ago, I did a big, long prep session with him for some games he was doing. Wow. And amazing.
John Ryan (Host) :
Yeah.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Like, amazing.
John Ryan (Host) :
Everybody that comes across the guy says, you just nobody like him.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, you know, he's like one of those guys that you feel like you know him when you're watching him on TV, right? And then when you get to meet him, you're like, Oh, man, Bill is like, you know, felt like the first time I met him, it felt like I knew him or he'd impacted me already or something, you know.
John Ryan (Host) :
All right, the Mount Rushmore of coaches that you've always idolized and things like that.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
Yeah, I mean, first Phil Jackson for sure. There's a guy named Daryl Mudra that was the football coach. They called him Dr. Victory at Northern Iowa. He was the one that got me in the – He had a book called Freedom in the Huddle, which I actually got to know his family, and we re-released it a few years ago. Great football coach. Eldon Miller, obviously. Wayne Chanley, obviously. And then most of what I was doing on my own, just trying to figure it out.
John Ryan (Host) :
Not a lot of big-time coaches' names that people would really recognize as NBA coaches, things like that.
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
I've got to know a lot of these guys over the years and spend a lot of time with some guys, but we don't need to go into all that. Are you superstitious? Some of them will be here in August for the event, so it'll be really cool to have them here, yeah. Are you superstitious? Nope. Not at all? Nope. I say I don't vibrate on those frequencies. I don't. It's too hard to keep track of that stuff. Now, you mentioned music. You're a huge music guy. Prince. Yep. Give me some artists. Yeah, well, I'll tell you the Prince story first. This is again dating ourselves or me for sure. I took a Greyhound bus when I was 17 from Carroll to Minneapolis to see the Purple Rain Tour. So that's where that started. So I tell them I'm still living in my high school days. right with that yeah um but but no a lot like listen I've seen some amazing things I saw Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall so I'm a big Clapton fan uh worked a Pink Floyd concert once uh you know I've I Guns and Roses I saw him in Brazil I saw you two in Istanbul Turkey so I've like yeah I've seen some cool stuff and and like all those people yeah very cool Nick I can't thank you enough for doing this yeah I really certainly appreciate it and it's been a lot of fun
John Ryan (Host) :
So you've got the Chamber Coffee here coming up in a few minutes. Any other business ventures you're looking at around?
Nick Nurse (Guest) :
We've got the grand opening of this place coming up, August 15th and 16th. So I've got a kind of a members appreciation day on the 15th, bringing all my coaches. The 16th is when all the celebs are coming in, and that's the part of the charity thing. Preview? Got any names? Well, yeah, Dr. J is coming, if that means it. Wow. I had a poster of Dr. J on my bedroom wall when I was a kid, and he's going to be golfing here. That's awesome. Yeah, I'm sure Kyle Lowry's coming, John Calipari's coming, some of the coaches that I know and work with. Really? I would imagine there'll be a few other 76ers players showing up and other area college coaches showing up. Amazing stuff, man. Thanks so much. I appreciate it.
John Ryan (Host) :
No, thanks, John. Appreciate you. All right. Nick Nurse, once again, our guest this morning here in Must Know People.
