-
Tim BontempsESPN
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Coach Raptors of coach Nick Nurse was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year for the 2019-20 season on Saturday.
Nurse, who led the Raptors to the NBA Championship last season, received 90 of 100 votes in the first place from a panel of media members. He rode Toronto to second place in the Eastern Conference for a second straight season, despite the departure of NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard in free agency.
“When you see Nick on the sidelines, that’s who he is as a person. Relaxed but so hardworking. Creative and dynamic. Always set the tone for our team – attacking our next championship, instead of to defend our last, ”Raptors President Masai Ujiri said in a statement. “That’s who Nick is, that’s why we believe in him. His journey to this enormous honor has been a long time. We’re so glad he’s recognized this way.”
Nurse, who led the Raptors to a franchise record .736 winning percentage in the regular season, was followed in the vote by Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer, last year’s winner, and Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan , who were recently named the co-winners of the National Basketball Coaches Association of the Year award. He becomes the third Raptors coach to win the award, after Dwane Casey (2017-18) and Sam Mitchell (2006-07).
Nurse, 53, took a long, winding road to the NBA, spent several years coaching in England and the NBA’s GBA before becoming an assistant to the Raptors in 2013, a job he had held five seasons before Casey succeeded in 2018.
Toronto could close a whip of the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the NBA playoffs with a victory on Sunday night here in the NBA bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort.
Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and the uproar it has caused to the NBA calendar, it has caused the league to once again change the way it divides its distinctions.
Unlike the past few years, when the NBA announced its award winners in a television awards show at the end of June, this year the league has once again shifted to its old format of announcing award winners throughout playoffs.
.
