Nick Nurse said former Bulls and Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson had a great influence on him. During his stint in the British basketball “scene” in his early 20s, Jackson inspired Nurse to continue pursuing his dream as a basketball coach.
Nurse led the Toronto Raptors to an epic playoff run last season and the first-ever NBA title in the history of the organization.
The head coach of the reigning NBA champions traveled to northern Montana for what would become a three-day stay with legendary former coach Phil Jackson. They had met before the start of the last season, Nurse’s first year as an NBA coach that ended up with winning a championship.
“I get there, we go have a cup of coffee and he says ‘Hop in my truck’ and we drive around the lake for a couple hours,” Nurse told Sportsnet’s Michael Grange, per theScore. “I’m just kind of sitting there with the windows down going, ‘Wow.’”
Furthermore, he commented on the “triangle offense”, which was the signature of the “winning mark” he left on Chicago and Los Angeles.
Here’s what Nick Nurse said about the “triangle offense” and his Raptors’ team different system:
“You’ve heard a lot of those guys in ‘The Last Dance’ talk about it, I think that, again, five guys being integral parts of the offense like we like to run it now – ours is less of a triangle and more of a big, spaced-out square – but it got better over the year and then they’re in a situation where now there’s more opportunities for them.”
