Raptors: Scariolo unfazed by prospect of filling in as head coach for weeks
There’s something that’s just calm and cool about Sergio Scariolo as he coaches a basketball game.
“Just kind of that, you know, smooth guy” is how Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry put it, and why wouldn’t Scariolo be like that.
He’s coached in the intensity of World Cup finals, Olympic gold-medal games and a EuroBasket atmosphere that can be overwhelming, and he’s always succeeded.
He does not get ruffled. He does not overreact. He is never overwhelmed by the task or the moment.
He’s smooth.
“Just really calm,” guard Fred VanVleet said of Scariolo, the Raptors’ interim head coach Friday night when Toronto beat Houston 122-111. “Very serious, obviously. He’s done it at a high level for a long time, so you can’t really B.S. him. He really knows the game, he knows his stuff.”
No surprise there, and Scariolo was a bit bemused by all the hullabaloo over the victory, his first in the NBA as head coach.
He was appreciative of the kind words, the support and collegial attitude that permeated a rushed-together staff minus Nick Nurse and five of his assistants because of NBA health and safety protocols. But the 59-year-old Italian was, in large measure, very much focused on the task at hand.
“It’s always like this, the other people who are making you feel special (but) you are so focused on what you have to do, (trying) not to ‘eff, dot, dot, dot’ it up in the special responsibility,” he said.
There is every indication Scariolo will continue in that interim role Sunday when the Raptors play Chicago, and perhaps through next weekend’s NBA all-star break.
The Raptors did not announce any further news on Nurse or his staff, but league sources say it could be a “couple of weeks” before they are back on the job. And Scariolo is the obvious replacement.
“When I first met him, I was like, ‘Sergio is a head coach,’ ” Lowry said. “He’s the head coach, A-type personality. That’s just him. That’s who he is. He’s very smooth. He’s very passionate about the game. He knows what he’s talking about.”
Scariolo’s history is dominated by success. He’s coached the Spanish national team in 150 FIBA games, winning the 2019 World Cup, a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and a bronze at the 2016 Rio Games, along three golds and a bronze at EuroBasket competitions.
A run-of-the-mill NBA game on a Friday night in February was never going to overwhelm him, regardless of the odd circumstances that led to it.
Scariolo had begun the week in Poland with the Spanish team for two FIBA EuroBasket qualification wins, then travelled back to Florida on Monday and was immediately quarantined under NBA guidelines. He drove himself to Miami on Wednesday to watch the Raptors, never breaking isolation to interact with anyone connected with the team.
He first heard of the possibility that Nurse and the majority of the staff would be unavailable on Thursday afternoon. Friday, when it was clear he’d be in charge for the first time since he joined Nurse’s staff in 2018, he kicked into gear. It was a collaborative effort, but he was in charge.
“We are learning that we have tools and capacity to react to really weird situations, to emergency situations … like this, or I imagine a hundred more that happen all over the world to every person, to every company, every sports club, whatever,” he said.
“We are learning that sometimes we love to have a great plan going from day one to the last one, (but) it’s good to know that we are able to react to different circumstances. We learned how not to panic and try to face what’s going on with a positive attitude.”
Friday’s game was hardly taxing. The Raptors were in control from the second quarter on, for one of their easiest wins of the season. There were, however, times when decisions had to be made, like late in the fourth quarter when it looked like the Rockets were getting back in the game. Scariolo had decide how to finish the game. He discussed it with the key players, but made the final call.
“It was a substitution he wanted to make and he made it, and that’s the respect I have for him,” Lowry said. “He made the call. That’s our professionalism. He’s the head coach, he makes the decisions, he’s going to make the final call.”
When it was over and Scariolo was 1-0 in his NBA head coaching career, he was proud but realistic about what had occurred.
“This is always teamwork,” he said. “We are not going into a game all of a sudden doing something different from what we planned. We have to, of course, make in-game adjustments, but always within our system.
“It’s not only a matter of discipline; it’s because we trust our system. The system proved to be a winning one.”