For the first time in a long time, Nick Nurse can catch his breath.
The circumstance are less than ideal and he would contend he didn’t need to, but now that COVID-19 has brought the NBA season and just about everything else to a full halt, the Toronto Raptors head coach has time on his hands.
He’s been going mostly full out since June of 2018 when he was hired for his first NBA head coaching job, immediately jumping into the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas and then jetting around the continent to connect with his new players while meeting and hiring his staff and preparing for training camp and the addition of Kawhi Leonard.
His rookie NBA season couldn’t possibly have gone better as everyone knows. He was on the sidelines for 82 games and 24 more in the post-season, culminating in the Raptors winning their first NBA title in Game 6 of the NBA Finals in Oakland on June 13.
Then it was a celebration, a parade, free agency and Summer League again. There was a brief pause in late July but then it was back to Toronto to prepare the Canadian senior men’s team to play in the FIBA World Cup of Basketball in China, returning in mid-September when he jumped right into preparing the Raptors for their title defence.
“It was a pretty good run, from June 13, 2019, on, it was a pretty fast, fast, fast-lane life for a little while,” said Nurse. “Really moving in from one thing to the next constantly. So it has, has enabled me to slam on the brakes and catch my breath a little bit, which is good and I don’t feel like I really needed it. You know what I mean. But now that it’s here, you know when you’re looking for silver linings or positives about it you can say it was, you know, it’s been OK.”
The brakes slammed pretty hard for Nurse — as they did for just about everyone else.
On March 11 he was at the launch party for his charitable foundation aimed at implementing basketball, music and literacy programs in and around Toronto when news reports began circulating that Utah Jazz centre Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the virus. It was barely an hour later that the NBA season was suspended. The Raptors had just come home from their longest road trip of the season, one which took them through California where a state of emergency was declared while they were there and which finished in Utah where two Jazz players – Donovan Mitchell was the other – eventually tested positive.
Nurse went from a party at Hotel X to testing at North York General Hospital to being quarantined in his room for the next 14 days. No one in the Raptors’ travelling party has tested positive for the virus.
“Obviously it hit really close to home because it was, really, a member of really the NBA family,” said Nurse. “So I think the… immediacy of it. And the closeness of it. I think made it very serious for all of us.
“I think I shifted into the mode of right away, ‘let’s do what we’re supposed to do, let’s get home and stay home and try to start spreading that message of, ‘let’s make sure we do what we’re told here and try to stay healthy.’
“…people were concerned about working out and going to the [training facility] and all this stuff, and I was really, really strong in my messaging to everybody that we’re gonna close this and stay shut,” said Nurse, who recorded a number of public service announcements about the importance of hand-washing and social distancing.
“Let’s make sure we get out and if we can provide any messages, washing hands and those kinds of things, I just really wanted it to be focussed on that.”
The forced rest has provided unexpected benefits. Rather than preparing for what would have been a much-hyped showdown against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night and likely a battle between the first and second seeds in the East, Nurse is at home helping tend his toddlers, aged three and one.
He’s even been able to watch last year’s title run from a different perspective, tuning into the replays of the games running every night on Sportsnet and TSN, including Game 7 against Philadelphia which ended on Leonard’s iconic shot from the right corner, directly in front of Nurse and the Raptors bench.
“I think the other day when Game 7 against Philly was on, I think it was actually the first time I’d ever watched that other than in a highlight,” he said. “Obviously you see it all the time on highlights, just moving around the city or the arena or the practice facility or whatever, but that was the first time I’d ever seen it.”
And?
“I guess I didn’t really realize that Kawhi put so much arc on that shot, that was my first takeaway. My other takeaway is you don’t really remember some of the specifics. And… I was sitting there watching it with [his wife] Roberta, and she was like ‘what happens here? How does it get to be a tie game.’ I go, ‘well, Kawhi must have missed one of these free throws’ [Leonard was at the line with 10 seconds left and went 1 of 2, opening the door to the Sixers tying the game on a lay-up with four seconds left, setting the stage for Leonard’s dramatic game winner].
“So you’re seeing things and obviously you don’t remember every little detail. But yeah, the big picture stuff, it obviously lets it sink in a little bit.”
What hasn’t sunk in yet is what shape the basketball calendar will take when it does get up and running.
Already postponed until 2021 are the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Nurse said he remains “100 per cent’ committed to coaching the Canadian senior men’s team through qualifying and ideally into the Olympics next summer.
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As for the remainder of the NBA season, Nurse is like anyone else — unsure of what comes next.
In the meantime he’s meeting with his coaching staff regularly, if virtually. Normally they would be well into preparing for any of the No. 2-seed Raptors potential playoff opponents with each member of his coaching staff being assigned a particular opponent to study, the result presented to Nurse in long individual meetings at his office.
“It’s probably a two-hour video that we would go through in about three hours, on each of the certain teams, in the East, and then a handful of them in the West as well,” said Nurse. “The coaches had started in on that already, and they’ll continue on that, the only difference is there’s no real one-on-one time with me yet.
“The way we can do it they’ll probably just have to send me their edit and I’ll just have to watch it, and talk to them on the phone or something like that; FaceTime or something.”
Otherwise? The time at home with his kids has been “fantastic,” and Nurse has been pecking away at his musical hobbies — piano and guitar. He’s even trying to learn Portuguese [his wife Roberta is from Brazil].
But like everyone he’s eager for routines to resume and with the Raptors in the middle of a promising title defence, hungry to find out how good his team can be.
When that might be or in what format — there have been reports that the NBA might attempt to finish out the season by quarantining teams in a single location and playing games for the benefit of a television audience only with a truncated playoff system — Nurse doesn’t know and hasn’t thought too much about.
“What I do think about it in terms of is this: this is a really good team, and it’s a really fun team to coach, and I think about it in terms of… it’s a shame that we don’t get to be around each other and play some games and keep this thing going a little bit,” he said.
“You know what I mean? I’m not saying it very well, but this is a really unique situation that I don’t think happens every day in this type of team. Shoot, I could coach these guys 12 months a year, just keep on going, we could keep playing all the time, they’re fun to be around, and fun to coach and they compete and they’re tough, and they figure it out.
“And it’s a true joy, and they are missed, there’s no doubt about it.”
Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil announced her retirement from swimming Thursday.
The gold medallist in the women’s 100-metre butterfly at Tokyo’s Summer Games in 2021 made the announcement in an Instagram post alongside a photo of her swimming as a child.
“The little girl above would have never dreamed this is where her love of swimming would take her,” Mac Neil wrote. “I am so grateful for all the memories, people, and places I have gotten to experience just through swimming.
“I’m excited to begin the next chapter of my life journey, as I embark on discovering who I am outside of swimming.”
The 24-year-old from London, Ont., earned a complete set of medals in Tokyo after helping relay teams to silver and bronze medals.
Mac Neil’s five gold medals at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, were the most by a Canadian athlete at a single Pan Am Games.
She was fifth in butterfly and was a member of two women’s relay teams that finished fourth at the recent Olympic Games in Paris.
“Anyone who I crossed paths with never, ever told me I couldn’t achieve my goal of going to the Olympics,” Mac Neil wrote. “It’s still surreal to be able to say I’m a two-time Olympian.”
She completed her master’s degree in sport management at Louisiana State University this year.
Born in China and adopted by Dr. Susan McNair and Dr. Edward MacNeil, Mac Neil’s mother wanted her to take swimming lessons for safety reasons because of the family’s backyard pool.
Mac Neil’s 2017 diagnosis of sport-induced asthma — which can be triggered by the swimming staples of heat and chlorine — forced a switch from longer distances to sprints.
Mac Neil became Canada’s first world champion in the women’s 100-metre butterfly two years later.
The nearsighted Mac Neil, who doesn’t wear contacts or prescription goggles, has seen multiple times a meme of her squinting hard at the scoreboard in Tokyo as she tried to decipher her result.
“I like to think it helps because I can’t see where other people are and I’m able to focus on my own race,” Mac Neil said before the Olympic Games in Paris. “That was definitely the case in Tokyo.
“I got that meme sent to me at least three times in January even though it’s been three years since.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Quarterback Nathan Rourke says the B.C. Lions “have to have a sense of urgency” as they prepare for their final four games of the CFL season.
“There’s a lot of importance in these last four games,” Rourke said after practice this week. “We’ve got to get it going.”
The Lions (7-7) want to get back on track when they face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (5-9) at B.C. Place Friday night. B.C. is coming off an embarrassing 33-17 loss at home to the Toronto Argonauts two weeks ago that left them in second place in the CFL West.
Across the country, a three-game winning streak has put the Tiger-Cats back in playoff contention in the East.
Defensive back Jamal Peters said the Ticats never stopped believing in themselves, even when they started the season with five losses.
“We kept the faith,” said Peters, who leads the team with four interceptions. “We kept believing in one another and kept working. We knew we wouldn’t ever be out of it.”
The Lions started the campaign 5-1 but are 2-6 in their last eight games. They head into the weekend two points behind the first-place Winnipeg Blue Bombers and one ahead of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
After looking strong in beating Ottawa and Montreal by a combined score of 75-35, the Lions managed just 222 total yards against Toronto. Rourke was pulled after completing six of 12 passes for 110 yards and no touchdowns.
“We’re trying to piece it together ourselves,” Rourke said in trying to explain why the Lions can be ferocious one game, then kittens the next. “At the end of the day it comes down to being able to play a complete game.
“That’s what all the good teams around the league do. They are able to play four quarters and have their offence help their defence.”
Rourke is 2-3 in the five games he has played since returning to the CFL after failing to land a job in the NFL. The Canadian-born quarterback has completed 79 of 126 passes for 1,099 yards, four touchdowns and seven interceptions. In the last two games Rourke has no touchdown passes and has thrown three interceptions.
Coming out of a bye week, Rick Campbell, B.C.’s head coach and co-general manager wanted to stop any talk of a quarterback controversy in Vancouver by saying Rourke remains the Lions starter.
“I don’t want to create any confusion,” said Campbell. “Right now this is what we’re doing. I want there to be clarity and not a debate going on.”
Veteran Vernon Adams Jr. was an early candidate as the league’s outstanding player before sustaining an injury and the return of Rourke. Adams was four of seven for 75 yards, no touchdowns and threw an interception when replacing Rourke against the Argos.
For the season Adams has completed 171 of 266 passes for 2,544 yards, 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
“We can win with either one of these guys,” said Campbell. “We’re going to go with the continuity Nathan has been playing with the last several weeks. We think we have room to improve and grow.”
One reason for the Hamilton turnaround has been Chris Jones joining the team as a senior defensive assistant after being fired as Edmonton’s head coach and general manager.
In the 10 games before Jones arrived, Hamilton allowed an average 33.4 points a game and gave up 3.5 touchdowns. In the four he has been a coach, the Ticats have given up 26.5 points a game and allowed 2.25 touchdowns.
Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell also leads the CFL with 4,044 passing yards (322 completions on 473 attempts) and 24 touchdowns.
Campbell knows Hamilton comes to the West Coast riding a wave of confidence.
“We always know we’re going to get their best shot,” he said. “Our job it to focus on us and make sure that they get our best shot.
“When they get our best shot, we’re pretty good. We need to direct all our energy and focus on ourselves.”
HAMILTON TIGER CATS (5-9) at B.C. Lions (7-7)
Friday, B.C. Place
ORANGE SHIRT DAY: The Lions celebrate their fourth consecutive Orange Shirt Day Game to pay respect to Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Players will wear special Orange Shirt Day warmup jerseys, which will be raffled off in support of the Orange Shirt Society and Indian Residential Schools Survivors’ Society (IRSSS).
HOMESTREACH: The Lions play three of their final games at home. After Friday they host Calgary Oct. 4 and Montreal Oct. 19 before finishing the season with a bye. B.C.’s lone road game is an Oct. 12 visit to Saskatchewan.
BYE BYE: The Lions are 4-2 in their last six games after a week’s rest.
DOING THE STREAK: Hamilton is looking for it’s first four-game win streak since 2022.
THREE-PEAT: Lions running back William Stanback needs just 41 yards to reach 1,000 for the third time in his career.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: The two teams have split their last six games at B.C. Place, with five of them decided in the final three minutes.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.
NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Serbia and Albania are set to co-host the men’s Under-21 European Championship in 2027 in a soccer project that aims to overcome political tensions.
UEFA said Thursday only the Serbia-Albania bid met a deadline this week to file detailed tournament plans. Belgium and Turkey had declared interest earlier in the bidding process scheduled to be decided at a Dec. 16 meeting of the UEFA executive committee.
The Serbian and Albanian soccer federations teamed up in May to plan organization of the 16-team tournament played every two years that needs eight stadiums to host 31 games.
Albania soccer federation leader Armand Duka, who is a UEFA vice president, told The Associated Press in May that “it’s a 100% football project” with “a very good political message that we can get across.”
Weeks later at the men’s European Championship held in Germany, historic tensions between the Balkan countries — which in soccer included a notorious drone incident at a Serbia-Albania game in 2014 — played out at separate games involving their senior teams.
An Albania player was banned for games by UEFA for using a megaphone to join fans in nationalist chants, including targeting Serbia, after a Euro 2024 game against Croatia. Fans of Albania and Croatia earlier joined in anti-Serb chants, leading UEFA to impose fines for discrimination.
UEFA also fined both the Albanian and Serbian federations in separate incidents at Euro 2024 for fans displaying politically motivated banners about neighboring Kosovo.
After historic tensions were heightened by the 1990s Balkans conflicts, in 2008 majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo declared independence for the former Serbian province. Serbia refuses to recognize that independence and considers Kosovo the cradle of its statehood.
An Albanian fans group daubed red paint on the federation offices in May when the cooperation with Serbian soccer for the Under-21 Euros was announced.
“We did have a few negative reactions from fans, mainly, and some interest groups,” Duka said then, “but not from the Albania government.”
UEFA has shown broad support for Serbia and Albania under its president, Aleksander Ceferin, who is from Slovenia.
The next annual congress of UEFA’s 55 national federations is in the Serbian capital Belgrade on April 3, and an executive committee meeting in September 2025 will be held in Tirana, Albania.
