Nick Nurse honed Toronto’s NBA remedy with the Bullets
Toronto Raptors sealed their first-ever NBA title under the guidance of coach Nick Nurse – the same coach who guided the Birmingham Bullets to their first play-off finals win back in 1996.
Clive Allen, from Dudley, played power-forward during those memorable days and has fond memories of playing under Nurse.
Allen, who is now at coach at the West Bromwich Albion Foundation's basketball programme, remains in touch with his former mentor and admits to basing much of his coaching skills around Nurse today.
"It's just an amazing achievement in itself," said Allen, who played for the Bullets between 1985–87 and 1988–2001.
"Having never played in the NBA myself it's nice to have some sort of connection with it now.
"I've been following his progress ever since he left the Bullets and it's fantastic to see how well he has done.
"He was one of the best coaches I ever played under. He could just always bring out the best in players.
"His idea was to just focus on a player's and team's strengths rather than trying too hard to improve the weaknesses.
"We loved the team he had put in place and he gave us the confidence to believe we could matches and titles with the players we had."
The Bullets won the play-offs in 1996 under Nurse who had guided the team, which played at the NIA – now Arena Birmingham – to the title using players who had already been brought in by a previous coach.
"He changed a couple of things and brought a few new faces but it was his coaching that helped the Bullets win their first-ever title," said Allen.
"We always had a good team but we had never been able to claim a championship until he came in.
"He also did really well at Derby Storm, Manchester Giants, Brighton Bears and in London before he got his break in the USA."
Two-time BBL Coach of the Year Nick Nurse has been confirmed as the new head coach of Toronto Raptors in the NBA.
Nurse's success in the British Basketball League made him one of the most successful coaches in the history of the league.
After winning the play-offs with the Bullets, he claimed the BBL Trophy, northern conference title and play-off championship during 1999-2000 season with the Manchester Giants, the southern conference with London Towers in 2000-2001, and the National Cup with in 2003, BBL Championship during the 2003-04 campaign and BBL Cup in 2005 with Brighton Bears
The Iowa native also claimed the end-of-year BBL Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2004.
Nurse then had a spell as Great Britain’s senior men’s assistant coach before moving to Toronto where he was assistant for five years before stepping up as head coach in the NBA.
In his first season, he led the Raptors a 4-2 finals win over defending champions Golden State Warriors to secure the first win in the franchise's history while Toronto also became the first Canadian side to lift the NBA title.
Allen, who ended his career at the Dudley Bears, added: "We have stayed in contact and some of my old team-mate, Fab Flourney and Nigel Lloyd, were over there supporting him when he won the finals.
"Fab was a player he brought over the States to the UK and there's rumours he might be joining him some time in a coaching capacity, but I'm not too sure.
"Watching the Raptors, his team plays in the same way we did at the Bullets. He always gave us the space and freedom to play our own games.
"He would say a few words but mainly he just let us all get on with it, and it really worked.
"He built his team around one or two great players, who for us was Tony Dorsey while at Toronto it's Kawhi Leonard, and use them to bring the best out of the other players.
"We began to feel like a family and winning became a habit."
When Nurse left the Bullets, he was replaced by Mike Finger, who took a season settle before going on to claim Birmingham's second play-off title in 1998.
"The first season he changed a lot of things and we were no where near where we were before," said Allen.
"The following season he reverted to how we played and used the same system we had under Nick and we won the championship again. I think that says so much about good Nick was.
"He has also influenced how I coach today. I was lucky enough to play under quite a few good coaches and I've taken bits from all of them, but I'd say about 70 per cent of it has been influenced by Nick."
