REUNITED, DOESN’T FEEL SO GOOD
Fuzzy feeling amiss as Raptors head coach faces his former mentor on Wednesday
No one will come out and say it directly — because people tend not to be that clear — but a still hurt, still angry Dwane Casey returns to Toronto Wednesday to coach against a former colleague and friend Nick Nurse, who is certainly not a friend anymore.
Time may heal these wounds, but not enough time has passed yet. Casey was the coach of the year in the NBA and was shown the door by Raptors president Masai Ujiri. Their final days together were not good days. Their relationship had deteriorated to mistrust and bordered on dislike.
When Ujiri fired Casey, he made it sound like it was the hardest thing he had ever done, firing a family member, putting on a show. It was terrific acting on Ujiri’s part. Anyone close enough to be aware of their collapsing relationship knew what really went on.
What made it all worse, from Casey’s perspective, was the hiring of Nurse, whom he had brought into the NBA, whom he had worked with side by side for five seasons, growing together, learning together, winning together.
Losing your job was hard enough to handle. Losing it to someone you believed was a friend made it very difficult to swallow. They used to speak every day, the way coaches on the same staff speak every day. And then Casey was fired and Nurse was hired and they haven’t spoken since.
When asked about his relationship with Casey afterward, Nurse did a tap dance of sorts Tuesday.
“Good,” Nurse said. “We have five years together. We had a lot of success and a lot of battles and a lot of long hours working hard. I’ve said this before. He took a team from relative obscurity, from the hinterlands, to relevance. That may be the hardest thing to do in this league.”
But what about their communication?
“Well, my communication with whoever is between me and whoever I’m communicating with. Whether it’s Kyle (Lowry) and me or Kawhi (Leonard) and me or Case and me, I keep that to myself. I’m looking forward to seeing him tomorrow.”
When I asked directly if he had spoken to Casey since the Raptors fired him — and it’s usual for a fired coach and his assistants to remain close after a dismissal — Nurse wouldn’t exactly answer. “My communications are between me and him,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing him.”
Just a piece of context, a recent exchange of text messages between OG Anunoby and Nurse was made rather public by the coach. So I suppose some of his communications are private: Just not all of them.
Toronto wasn’t just a basketball team to Casey. It had become home, even as he went back to Seattle each summer. He had made many friends here, his family was grounded here, his kids played soccer with Lowry’s kids, he had built tight bonds with city and fans and media, which is highly unusual in professional sports at any time, so his firing seemed like the extended family was missing something.
The wins, the losses, they were one thing. Casey was like a part of us, a part of the town, a part of the story, a throwback in history to a time when the Raptors were an NBA embarrassment. He grew, they grew and we grew alongside him. He and Ujiri fought through all that, not always together. Management and coaches aren’t always together, not always on the same page, but fighting nonetheless. And for the most part succeeding against everything except LeBron James.
Casey was fired before James went to the Lakers and before Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green were traded to Toronto. Nurse has a new team and a different way and has experienced early and impressive results with how the Raptors are playing. Veterans Lowry and Serge Ibaka have never been better. Pascal Siakam is looking like an all-star and Anunoby doesn’t seem to be a sophomore at all. Jonas Valanciunas has never played less or been more efficient. And Leonard, well, is what he was advertised to to be — an elite player in the NBA.
This is already Nurse’s team. Casey is being paid way more money with way more term to coach the Detroit Pistons, but that’s the contractual stuff, not the human stuff. Casey is being paid life-changing money in Detroit, but once the season begins money becomes less relevant than wins and strategies and preparation for coaching lifers.
Nurse is a coaching lifer himself. He started to hear his name mentioned last season for head coaching jobs in other places. He believed this would be his year.
“I thought my opportunity was coming,” said Nurse. “I didn’t think it would be here.”
Now he’s off to a flying start with the Raptors, Casey doing as much as you can do with the middle-of-the-road Pistons. Casey once had to go to Japan to reinvent his career. Nurse coached at obscure colleges and in England before finding his way to pro basketball in North America. Brought to the NBA by Casey. Once upon a time, they each came from their own version of nowhere and maybe one day they can be friends again.
Would it bother Nurse if he never repaired the relationship with Casey? His answer was muddy, but rather clear.
“Again, I have a lot of respect for the guy. I really like him. That’s all I can say. I don’t really give it much thought.”
Once upon a time, they each came from their own version of nowhere and maybe one day they can be friends again.