Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse has signed a contract extenstion to continue as head coach of the Canada men's national team, the team announced today .
"Nick is a tremendous head coach with a proven history of success at each and every level he’s coached throughout his career,” said Rowan Barrett, General Manager/Executive Vice-President, Senior Men's Program.
“Extending Nick provides our program the excellence and leadership to continue growing our program at all levels, as we pursue the podium and establish Canada as global leader in international basketball.”
“We’re watching games on TV… the same theme kept coming up. They stay together, they play together. That’s what we’re trying to do here.”
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) August 16, 2021
Nick Nurse tells @tim_micallef about his decision to commit to coaching @CanBball 's men's national team for the next three years. 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/7p9wEIll47
Nurse was named as head coach in 2019 taking Canada to the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China and fell just short of securing qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games after losing to the Czech Republic at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Victoria, British Columbia.
"Really honoured to coach this team," Nurse told SportsNet .
"[We] went to the Olympic qualifer and we played pretty well, but we learned a lot of valuable lessons and one of the things is continuity, so when they talked to me about what we're going to do next, 'we're going all the way through to the next one if you'll have me' that's what I want to do becuase of a little bit of unfinished business."
Nurse's extenstion will see him coach through the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as he looks to secure Canada's first Olympic berth since Sydney 2000, with a focus on getting players to commit to a three-year cycle to boost their chances of qualification and build continuity in the program.
in their most recent qualifier, Canada saw eight NBA players turn out including Lugentz Dort, Andrew Wiggins, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Cory Joseph, Dwight Powell, Trey Lyles, RJ Barrett and Mychal Mulder. Ther depth of talent available to the program includes plenty of star power with the likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Dillon Brooks, Tristan Thompson, Jamal Murray, Brandon Clarke, Kelly Olynyk, Oshae Brissett, Khem Birch and 2021 Draft picks Josh Primo and Chris Duarte.
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