Nick Nurse & Nate Bjorkgren have known each other for 25+ yrs. Bjorkgren was 19 when Nurse coached him at the University of South Dakota. They coached together in the D-League & won a championship together with the Raptors.

Now they& #39;ll get to coach against each other in the NBA.

Bjorkgren was an unpaid volunteer when he started working for Nurse with the Iowa Energy of the D-League back in 2007. He made $500 in Year 2, $2,500 in Year 3. He worked as a part-time gym teacher to pay the bills.

Now he& #39;s an NBA head coach. Very cool.

I wrote about the Nurse-Bjorkgren duo/long-time friendship in Feb.

Nurse, from within: "It was pretty evident pretty quickly that (Nate) was gonna be a really good coach. His care level was (high) and the biggest thing is he’s a super positive guy.” https://www.tsn.ca/nba-all-star-game-a-long-time-coming-for-nick-nurse-and-nate-bjorkgren-1.1442267">https://www.tsn.ca/nba-all-s...

Also from that story:

Lowry: “Nate is the f---ing man. He& #39;s always that positive, happy go-lucky guy, always looking at the plus side.”

Siakam: “He’s present and I think his energy is felt and needed. He’s a great coach, likeable person and somebody thats serious about his job”