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Ex-Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse offers brutal honesty on difficult 76ers tenure

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
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Mar 13 2025, 10:00 am
Ex-Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse offers brutal honesty on difficult 76ers tenure
Dale Zanine/Imagn Images

It’s no secret that things haven’t exactly gone as planned for Nick Nurse in his two seasons since leaving the Toronto Raptors.

Expected to be one of the NBA’s top teams this season, the Philadelphia 76ers now sit with a record of 22-43, and have faced a host of player absences this year, the most notable of which was a season-ending knee injury to former league MVP Joel Embiid announced last month.

Nurse, who was let go by Toronto back in May 2023 after five years as in charge (and five years prior to that as an assistant coach), visited his former home on Wednesday night for the fourth time since his dismissal.

The game itself was a 118-105 win for Toronto, which pushed the Raptors ahead of the 76ers in the Eastern Conference standings, but behind in the NBA Draft Lottery race to the bottom for better potential odds at the No. 1 overall pick.

Toronto and Philadelphia have achieved largely similar results, with one major difference: one team expected to be in the league’s lower half, and it wasn’t the 76ers.

But past the backdrop of the actual contest, the game offered Nurse a chance to be a bit more reflective than he had in three previous visits to his ex-employer.

“I think our fans, the one thing I know, is the Philadelphia people are deeply, deeply passionate about sports, all the teams, like the Eagles, the Sixers, Flyers, the Phillies. I go push my garbage out in the yard, and my neighbours are talking to me about all the teams all the time. It’s pretty cool,” Nurse said pregame.

Nurse was infamous in Toronto for wearing his heart on his sleeve during his five years in charge, but he says he’s mellowed out this year as his team has crashed out of contention.

“There’s no use in making it miserable for everybody. It happens a lot in games when we make a really silly play… I can feel myself wanting to be way more upset; taking a breath and letting it pass through me,” Nurse admitted.

Nurse was also asked about his pregame preparation, which he’d detailed as not changing much game-to-game from earlier in the season despite the 76ers less-than-ideal record this year.

“The games come so fast, right? And you got to try to, from Xs an Os, prep standpoint… you’ve got to have a level of what you’re comfortable with. [If] I don’t watch X amount of games of our opponents, and I don’t feel like I’m doing my job and I’m prepared, right? I’m never gonna not do it. It’s been that way for the whole time I’ve been a head coach.”

Following the game, Nurse made an interesting comment about his future as 76ers head coach when asked about his comfort level of returning to Toronto once again.

“I guess I’m getting used to it. I’m done [coming to Toronto] for this year. We’ll see what happens next year,” Nurse said in a question asked by Offside. “[I spent] 10 years here, super, special place for me. I’m a competitive guy… I’d like our team to play a little bit better. You kind of always want to get [a win over] the people you know a little bit.”

While Nurse has a contract signed through 2027-28, and he might not have exactly meant to insinuate an uncertain future in Philadelphia by suggesting “we’ll see what happens,” it’s not the first time he’s raised some eyebrows about his job security.

In what ended up being his final season with the Raptors, Nurse told reporters before a game coincidentally against the 76ers that he’d “take a few weeks to evaluate” his future following the year.

It might have been a nothing comment simply referring to not knowing what it could be like the next time he visits the Raptors, but it’s hard to not at least wonder if Nurse is considering this year could be his final ride in Philadelphia, likely much sooner than he ever imagined when he took the job less than two years ago.

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