FOG BLOG CANADA LOG: AFTER DISAPPOINTING RAPTORS SEASON, MANAGEMENT FIRES HEAD COACH NICK NURSE!

Toronto Raptors fire head coach Nick Nurse after disappointing season Like a lot of Toronto Raptors fans, Masai Ujiri didn’t like what he saw from his team this season. But as team president, he could do something about it.

Head coach Nick Nurse was fired by the Raptors on Friday after a disappointing season where Toronto failed to make the playoffs and finished ninth in the Eastern Conference with a 41-41 record, losing to the Chicago Bulls in the NBA play-in tournament.

Ujiri addressed media about an hour after the Raptors announced Nurse’s dismissal. Visibly choked up after firing the coach who guided Toronto to its only NBA championship, Ujiri made no excuses during a 45-minute news conference.

“I believe that we’re going to win again in Toronto, and I feel strongly about that, but to watch us play this year was not us,” said Ujiri at OVO Centre, the Raptors training facility. “I did not enjoy watching this team play and I think that spoke loud and clear to everything that I think went on this year.

“It bothered all of us. It bothered coach too. But sometimes we have to make changes and we have to move forward.”

Nurse joined the Raptors organization in 2013 as an assistant coach before being named the ninth head coach in team history in June 2018, replacing Dwane Casey.

He coached the Raptors to their first NBA title the following year, defeating Orlando, Philadelphia and Milwaukee before topping the Golden State Warriors in the final.