The Philadelphia 76ers began a new era Monday, reaching an agreement with Nick Nurse to become the team’s new head coach.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the news, although the 55-year-old coach had been a heavy favorite to land the job.
Nurse had also been a leading candidate for the open jobs with the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns.
ESPN Sources: Nick Nurse has reached an agreement to become the next coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. Nurse — who won an NBA championship and a coach of year award with Toronto — now gets to coach the 2023 MVP Joel Embiid. pic.twitter.com/SrsXhzx7Y3
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 29, 2023
Nurse posted a 227-163 record and won an NBA championship in five seasons with the Toronto Raptors. Toronto parted ways with Nurse in April after a 41-41 season that saw the Raptors fall short in the NBA Play-In Tournament.
Nurse faces huge expectations in Philly. The 76ers fired Doc Rivers earlier this month after they lost for the third straight season in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. So the bar has been set that anything short of a conference finals is not acceptable, especially not with returning talent such as reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and possibly James Harden.
NBA fans and 76ers faithful had mixed feelings about the news.
My reaction to this information: pic.twitter.com/QWPlJtLIww
— Alykhan Khamisa Ravjiani (AK) (@AlykhanKR) May 29, 2023
Why would he chose Philly over Phoenix 🤔 lol
— NetsKingdom 👑🗽 (@NetsKingdomAJ) May 29, 2023
No way Harden re-signs to play for Nick Nurse lmao
— GrizzliesFilm (@GrizzliesFilm) May 29, 2023
Shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.
— Chris Donald (@donaldc58) May 29, 2023
Downgrade in my opinion, Kawhi built his whole rep.
— FantasyMagic (@jamesabaileyjr) May 29, 2023
Doc rivers was a terrorist so it’s an upgrade
— Dr. Rocktober (@ArtfulDisk274) May 29, 2023
theres a Doc and a Nurse joke in here somewhere…
— RGF (@rgfray1) May 29, 2023
We are living in the upside down.
— R33VO (@TRAPHAGRID) May 29, 2023
