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'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'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

Also from that story:

Lowry: “Nate is the f---ing man. He'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”