By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Philadelphia 76ers have a new head coach. 2019 NBA champion Nick Nurse has agreed to take over the Sixers, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, succeeding Doc Rivers.
The Sixers’ list of head coach candidates was an impressive one, including former Milwaukee Bucks Mike Budenholzer, ex-Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams and veteran Mike D’Antoni, among others. As Wojnarowski reports, the Phoenix Suns also had discussions with Nurse’s representatives.
Nurse was fired by the Raptors at the end of the regular season after the team didn’t manage to make the playoffs due to a loss to the Chicago Bulls in the Play-In tournament. He had taken over the team at the beginning of 2018-10 and at the end of the season, Toronto was celebrating the first championship title in the history of the franchise.
That year the Raptors actually eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinals in a dramatic fashion thanks to the now-famous Kawhi Leonard winning jumper in Game 7. Since then Toronto was eliminated in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the 2020 Bubble by the Boston Celtics, missed the playoffs in 2021 and suffered a first-round exit by the Sixers in 2022.