The Canadian national basketball team tapped Sacramento Kings associate head coach Jordi Fernandez as its next head coach, replacing Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse in the role, ESPN and the Toronto Star reported Tuesday.
Fernandez, 40, just finished his first season as the top assistant to Mike Brown in Sacramento following six seasons as an assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets.
The Spaniard was also an assistant coach for the Nigerian national team and is seen as a rising star in the coaching ranks, interviewing for head-coaching vacancies with the Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns and Toronto Raptors this offseason.
The Raptors’ job was open after they fired Nurse, who led them to an NBA title in 2019. Nurse was also the Canadian national team head coach since June 2019 and had signed a contract extension that was set to run through the 2024 Paris Olympics.
When the Raptors fired Nurse in April, Canada Basketball released a statement saying the organization and Nurse were “focused on this summer’s FIBA Basketball World Cup and qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Nick will continue to be our head coach as we work to achieve our goals this summer and next.”
It was not clear as of Tuesday evening whether Canada Basketball had a change of mind or whether Nurse surrendered the role to focus fully on Philadelphia.
The FIBA World Cup begins in late August and will help determine qualification for the 2024 Summer Games; the top two finishers from North America will qualify. Canada begins group play Aug. 25 against France and will also play Lebanon and Latvia in Group H.
Canada has not qualified for the Olympic men’s basketball tournament since 2000 and has never finished better than fourth. The nation is currently No. 15 in the FIBA world rankings and has a roster that could include Jamal Murray, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, RJ Barrett and Dillon Brooks.
–Field Level Media