Raptors' coach Nick Nurse shares hilarious story about meeting the Queen

Queen Elizabeth II has met thousands of celebrities during her time in power, but you probably didn’t expect Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse to be on the list.

Nurse met the Queen while working for Great Britain’s team at the London 2012 Olympics, he shared prior to yesterday’s 103-91 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

While in the Olympic Village, an opportunity to meet royalty suddenly presented itself.

“I just remember somebody opened up the door,” Nurse said. “[They said], ‘Hey, anybody wants to meet the Queen? Come down now!'”

Nurse said his first instinct wasn’t nerves, but rather thinking about the possible added security protocol he might have to go through.

“As you well know, everything you do around the Olympics, when you’ve got to do something, it’s quite a process to get in and out and move and security. All these things are very difficult,” Nurse said.

But Nurse made it through and ended up sharing a laugh with the Queen herself.

“She came up, very nice conversation,” Nurse added. “She said, ‘And what do you do?’ I said, ‘I’m with the senior men’s basketball team,’ and she said, ‘You’ve got to be quite tall to play basketball, don’t you?'”

Nurse’s accent could use a little work, though, as seen in the video below.

If you ever wondered what a Nick Nurse impression of the Queen would sound like🤣 : https://t.co/3kKtCBl3mn pic.twitter.com/cpkMmrq8kV

— Lindsay Dunn (@LindsayDunnTV) February 16, 2022

The team’s royal approval didn’t do them much good though, as they finished 1-4 in the tournament and missed out on the playoff rounds.

As for why Nurse was reminiscing about his royal encounter? Minnesota is coached by former Raptors assistant Chris Finch, who served on that same Olympic staff alongside Nurse and met the Queen alongside him.

Eventually becoming close friends, Nurse admitted that Finch and him had a longstanding rivalry while competing against each other as coaches and players in the British Basketball League during the 1990s.

“We were on each other’s heels every single season,” Nurse said.

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