Nick Nurse and Chris Finch: British Basketball Legends

Nick Nurse and Chris Finch are head coaches in the most popular and competitive basketball league in the world. But their story is one that developed across the pond, away from the game’s spiritual home. 

The World’s Game 

There is a disconnect between the NBA and the rest of world basketball, despite the globalisation of the game. NBA fans see their league as the World Championships; the pinnacle of basketball, towering above everything and everyone. 

Things are certainly changing. Of the top five or ten best players playing in America, you could make the case that at least half were born abroad. An American hasn’t won the MVP since 2018. 

But these changes seem sudden, caused by the explosion in the commercialisation of sport and investment into infrastructure across the globe. Neglected is the longstanding impact of foreign leagues and players on the function and conduct of the NBA, exemplified by the journey of two of the league’s top head coaches. 

Nick Nurse and Chris Finch: Beginnings

Nick Nurse and Chris Finch had similar introductions into the sport which can ultimately explain their desire to seek opportunities outside of their home country. 

Growing up in Iowa, Nurse played Point Guard for his local college (Northern Iowa College) before going on to coach the team upon his graduation. Undoubtedly being the lead guard and conducting an offence aligned with his passion for the intricacies of the sport. 

However, playing and coaching in the small town of Cedar Falls was never going to placate his lofty aspirations. Therefore, he made the bold decision to travel across the Atlantic and take on a player-coach role at the Derby Rams, a founding member of the British Basketball League. 

Whilst he would stay only one season in the Midlands, Nick Nurse felt his passion for the defensive side of the game aligned with British sporting values of hard work, tenacity, and physicality. This would bring him back to the country in 1995, four years after he left, to coach the Birmingham Bullets.

Nick Nurse Honours

Here, Nick Nurse won his first honours, the BBL Playoffs, in just his first season with the team. Now a solidified figure within the European game, he would go on to coach in Belgium, Manchester, London, and Brighton, before moving back stateside for good.

Whilst sharpening his coaching tools Nurse was able to acquire a host of accolades. He won the BBL Playoffs again with the Manchester Giants, as well as the BBL Trophy and the short-lived Northern Conference, earning him the Coach of the Year award. 

“I loved working for the Manchester Giants, and I wasn’t going anywhere. I loved the city. I was living in Altrincham at the time, and we had a great team, ownership was great and there was a great buzz about it all,” Nurse said in an interview. 

“It was an enjoyable job, and I would probably still be there if the club hadn’t changed hands and let us go, that’s how much I loved that job.

“Manchester is an awesome city and that always sets you up to be able to do something special.”

He followed his stint in Manchester by winning the Southern Conference with the London Towers in 2001. His final and longest job in England was with the Brighton Bears, where he won the BBL Cup twice and the BBL Championship once, as well as a Coach of the Year award, meeting and competing with Chris Finch along the way.

Speaking on coach Finch, Nurse said, “He’s always been in my mind, like, unbelievable offensively – like as good as I’ve ever seen.”

Chris Finch and Nick Nurse would develop a friendship based on their mutual love of the game and competition, facing off against one another during their time in Britain. 

Having graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1992, Finch played his four-year professional career in Sheffield, before becoming the coach of the Sharks in 1997. 

During this time he won the BBL Championship four times, the Cup three times, the Trophy once and Coach of the Year twice.

Chris Finch was the attacking antithesis to Nurse’s relentless defensive pressure. He demanded creativity and constant ball movement which allowed the Sharks to become the most successful franchise in league history.

“My time in Sheffield was great, I loved my time and spent 10 years there. The organisation was great it allowed me to succeed and fail, which was huge [for my development as a coach]. We also had a lot of success there which set me up for a lot of different things.”

The Decider

Nick Nurse and Chris Finch clashed on numerous occasions throughout their careers in England which is how they built their relationship.

But it was the final game of the 1998/99 BBL season where they had their greatest contest and demonstrated why they are two of the greatest coaches in England’s history who would surely reach the NBA someday. 

At the time Nick Nurse was coaching the Manchester Giants and Chris Finch the Sheffield Sharks. Both teams sat on 60 points for the season with the game between the two set to determine the championship.

This was the peak of British Basketball and saw the highest attendance at a regular season game – 11,143. This record is still held today, 25 years on. 

Everything about this match was balanced. Offence versus defence. Two young American tacticians aspiring to reach the top of the game. It was the perfect storm. 

In the end, it was the Shark’s attacking prowess which trumped Nurse’s clever defensive strategies, with the game crescendoing in a final second ‘buzzer-beater’ by Terrell Myers. 

Meeting her Majesty

The coaches haven’t always been pitted against one another. They were asked to coach the Great British team in the 2012 Olympics, held in London. 

Finch was appointed the head coach of the team which included the best Welsh, Scottish, and English players, and he asked Nurse to be an assistant. 

By 2012, they had built a friendship from over a decade of competition and were now working in tandem – Nurse took over Finch as coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers (the Houston Rockets G League affiliate) as Finch moved up to the Rockets himself.

The mutual respect and knowledge of the British game made them obvious candidates and perfect partners for the role. 

Whilst they would go on to win just one of their five group games – a 90-58 victory over China – they created a hard-nosed and determined side which pushed the eventual runners-up, Spain, right to the end, losing by just one point. 

But it wasn’t just coaching together that made the experience memorable…

“We were in the Olympic village, as you well know, everything you do around the Olympics when you’ve got to do something is quite a process, to get in and out and move and security, and all these things, are very difficult,” said Nurse. 

“I just remember somebody … opened up the door and said, ‘hey, if anybody wants to meet the Queen, come down now.’

“The first thing I said was, ‘oh man, what do we got to do? How much security? How long is that gonna take?’ She was down in the courtyard of the area where all the British athletes were staying, and we went down the stairs together, and they just grabbed seven people randomly, and there she was. She came up and, it was a very nice conversation. She said, ‘what do you do?’ And I said, ‘I’m with the senior men’s basketball team.’ And she said, ‘you’ve got to be quite tall to play basketball.’ And I said, ‘yeah, you do.’ That’s all true.”

In the big leagues

It has certainly been a long journey, but both Finch and Nurse are now highly revered head coaches in the NBA, for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers respectively. 

Both have had to pay their dues, coaching for decades overseas, then in the G League, and then serving as assistants in basketball’s top division. They have earned their stripes. 

Nick Nurse is an NBA champion, having won whilst leading the Toronto Raptors in 2019. Adhering to his international pedigree, he coached the first non-American team to win the Playoffs, against the greatest offensive team in NBA history – the Golden State Warriors. 

He has also won Coach of the Year, earning him the right to coach at the All-Star game. He has not only reached the pinnacle of the sport, but he has conquered it.

Chris Finch on the other hand had to wait longer for his chance to lead a team. He was the lead assistant for a series of NBA teams, including under Nick Nurse in 2020/21, before finally being given the role of head coach at the Minnesota Timberwolves. 

Since then he has built a unique team, surprisingly with its foundation in defence – no doubt relying on knowledge gained coaching with Nurse. The Wolves are a tall team, led by superstar Anthony Edwards, and had a successful season in which they had the league’s best defence and reached the Western Conference finals. 

Chris Finch, speaking to Sportsnet.ca, said: “It’s kind of crazy to think that we’re here, given where we started.

“We have great respect for each other. That trumps everything. Friendship is always there, regardless. We’ve been really supportive. We lean on each other a lot, having come into a lot of different situations where we’ve experienced the same kind of pushback or obstacle or challenges, how we manage those things kind of as outsiders.

“We didn’t go to North Carolina, and we didn’t grow up in the league. So, there’s a lot of things you have to do to crack your way in.”

In a different interview, Finch said, “We’ve been circling around each other our entire lives.

“He’s the best coach I’ve ever worked with. He’s so creative. He checks all the boxes.”

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

I am an aspiring sports journalist and fourth-year student studying history at the University of Edinburgh. I am passionate about basketball, football, and rugby and love watching, playing, and writing about all sports.