Nick Nurse’s 1st boss says Raptors made the right move in making him head coach
TORONTO — Eldon Miller said just five people showed up for the first players meeting he held as head basketball coach at Northern Iowa. One of them was Nick Nurse.
A college coach lifer at “almost 80,” Miller was one of the many people from Nurse’s past who lined up to congratulate the 50-year-old Tuesday when news broke that he’ll be the Toronto Raptors’ next head coach.
“His quote to me was ‘Sometimes it’s a crazy business,’” Miller said. “I texted him after he told me that and said ‘Maybe it’s not so crazy. Somebody smart enough to hire you has an idea what’s going on.’”
Nurse was already at Northern Iowa when Miller took over the team. Miller then hired him as a student assistant in what would be the first of more than a dozen coaching outposts on his road to Toronto.