Team Canada has hired a coach from Spain to replace outgoing coach Nick Nurse, who has moved from the Toronto Raptors to the Philadelphia Sixers in the NBA.
Basketball Canada announced that Jordi Fernandez will lead Team Canada at the FIBA World Cup group stage in Indonesia in late August. Fernandez, from Barcelona, has worked on the coaching staff of national teams from Spain and Nigeria. He was an assistant with the Denver Nuggets for six years before joining the Sacramento Kings last year. He helped head coach Mike Brown win the NBA’s Coach of the Year. He was reportedly among candidates for the head coaching job with the Raptors.
“To have the chance to lead Canada this summer at the World Cup is a tremendously exciting opportunity and one I’m extremely grateful for,” Fernandez said. “Not many international programs have the ceiling that this team does, and it is a testament to the hard work and development Canada Basketball, as well as Nick and his staff, have put in over the last several years.”
Team Canada hopes to line up in Indonesia with all-NBA guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, NBA finals hero Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett, Dillon Brooks, Lu Dort, Dwight Powell, Kelly Olynyk and others. Though Coach Fernandez previously coached Murray in Denver, it’s not clear if Murray will play for Team Canada after a long season ending with the NBA title.
Canada Basketball hired Nurse in 2019 and gave him a contract through the 2024 Paris Olympics. But the Sixers reportedly insisted that Nurse spend his summer preparing for his first year coaching players such as Joel Embiid and James Harden. “It has been a tremendous honour and privilege to coach this (Canadian) team,” Nurse said in a statement. “This is not a decision I made lightly, and after discussing it with my family, I felt it was important to dedicate my time and energy to the new opportunity I have as head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.”
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