Born Nicholas David Nurse in Carroll, Iowa, Nick Nurse played at the University of Northern Iowa from 1985 to 1989, appearing in 111 games. He is the school's all-time 3-point percentage leader at.468. During their successful 1989-90 season, Nurse was the sole student assistant coach for Northern Iowa in his final year with the team. After graduating from Northern Iowa in May 1990 with a B.A. in accounting, Nurse became a player-coach for the Derby Rams in the British Basketball League for the 1990–91 season; following the 1990–91 season, Nurse never played professionally again, opting to pursue a full-time coaching career. Nurse got his first full-time head coaching job at Grand View University when he was only 23 years old; at the time, he was the youngest college basketball head coach in the country. He coached at Grand View for two seasons before taking on an assistant coaching role at the University of South Dakota for two seasons. Nurse later spent 11 seasons coaching in Europe, mostly in the British Basketball League. During that time, he won two BBL championships as a head coach, one with the Birmingham Bullets in 1996 and one with the Manchester Giants in 2000, while also helping London Towers in the Euroleague. Nurse also won the BBL Coach of the Year Award in the 1999–2000 and 2003–04 seasons. He also coached for the Telindus Oostende of the Ethias League in 1998, as well as became an assistant coach for the Oklahoma Storm of the United States Basketball League in both 2001 and 2005.
D-League
In 2007, Nurse accepted the head coaching job for the Iowa Energy, who were preparing for their first season in the NBA D-League. The Energy won division titles under Nurse in the 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons. After three seasons with the team, Nurse agreed to join the coaching staff of the Iowa State Cyclones as an associate head coach in April 2010. Shortly afterwards, however, Cyclones head coach Greg McDermott left Iowa State to become the head coach at Creighton, and Nurse returned to his former position as head coach with the Energy. In the 2010–11 NBA D-League season, Nurse received the Dennis Johnson Coach of the Year Award after helping Iowa achieve the best record in the league. Nurse and the Energy then went on to win the 2011 D-League championship. Before the 2011–12 season, Nurse left the Energy for the D-League's Rio Grande Valley Vipers. In the 2012–13 season, the Vipers finished with a record of 35–15 and won the D-League finals in a two-game sweep of the Santa Cruz Warriors. During his six seasons coaching in the D-League, Nurse had 23 players on his rosters called up to the NBA.
NBA
In July 2013, Nurse departed the Vipers for an assistant job on the coaching staff of the Toronto Raptors under Dwane Casey. He was in charge of the offense during his time under Casey, and in the 2017–18 season he was credited for changes to the Raptors offensive game plan which included increases in passing and 3-point attempts. The improved offense helped the Raptors win a franchise-record 59 games, but the team was swept in the second round of the 2018 NBA playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Casey was fired shortly thereafter. On June 14, 2018, the Raptors promoted Nurse to the position of head coach to succeed Casey. On May 25, 2019, Nurse coached the Raptors to the 2019 NBA Finals, the first for the franchise, after taking the Eastern Conference Championship by defeating the Milwaukee Bucks in six games. On June 13, Nurse became the first head coach to win both the NBA and NBA G League titles, when the Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, winning the Raptors their first championship in franchise history. In 2020, Nurse qualified to be the head coach in the 2020 NBA All-Star Game, as the Eastern Conference representative.
Nurse and his wife Roberta have two sons. He also has a nephew named David, who previously worked with the Brooklyn Nets before becoming a personal trainer for professional players. In December 2018, Nurse's mother Marcella died. Nurse is a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan and was a guest conductor of the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field in 2019, singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." On June 20, 2019, Nurse joined Hamilton-based rock band Arkells at their sold-out Toronto concert to perform a cover of Stevie Wonder's hit song "Signed, Sealed, Delivered " on guitar.
