SHANGHAI, China Less than 24 hours after he popped that first bottle of bubbly in celebration of the Raptors NBA championship last June, Nick Nurse began to see just how much life had changed.

The day after that Game 6 win over the Golden State Warriors in Oakland sealed the deal and after a long night of celebration, the first-year NBA head coach awoke to a video invitation on his phone from Chicago Cubs organist Gary Pressy.

Nurse still has the invite on his phone and was only too happy to play it for a couple of journalists who have made their way to China to chronicle the Nurse-coached Team Canada journey through FIBA World Cup play.

Nick, great job on the great run to the championship, bud, Pressy begins on the video. That was super. Now make sure I see you in the summer here at Wrigley Field. Make sure you bring the hardware and make sure you bring your singing voice because wed love to have you do the stretch. And theres a song here that fits the moment.

Pressy then turns around to his organ and starts playing Take me Out to the Ball Game.

Growing up in Carroll, Iowa, a town of about 10,000, the Cubs dominated Nurses summers long before basketball became his focus, so you can understand just how monumental that moment was for him.

Over 11,000 kilometers and some seven weeks later, Nurse still cant believe his boyhood dream of singing complete with the Harry Carey glasses, no less Take Me Out to the Ball Game at a Cubs game has been realized.

Melvin Ejim of Canada listens to Nick Nurse, head coach, during a Canada training session at Bendat Basketball Centre on August 14, 2019 in Perth, Australia. (Will Russell/Getty Images)

The Cubs were well aware of Nurse by the time the Raptors won. He made the journey to Chicago soon after he was named the Raptors head coach to pick Joe Maddons brain about leadership ideas.

Nurses turn to take the mike at Wrigley came about a month later and he did so in front of friends and family and his entire coaching Raptors staff that was in Chicago for a year-end retreat.

I just kind of always wondered how I could get myself (to do) the seventh-inning stretch, a to-this-day Cubs-crazy Nurse said. I just never really had any ideas of how to get there and now I have one. Winning an NBA title is a pretty good way of doing it.

Nurse admits he didnt practice too much for the big moment but with 2 1/2 year old son Leo just learning to sing, dad may have got a little practice in singing those famous words just a few times each night before young Leos bedtime.

His life ever since that winning night in Oakland has been a daily reminder of how quickly change comes with the kind of transcendent success that accompanies an NBA championship.

Certainly in Toronto Nurse gets stopped constantly by well wishers and enthusiastic fans wanting to tell him how much they appreciate the job he and the Raptors did throughout that championship run.

But even while in Australia, where the Canadian team spent more than two weeks getting ready for this FIBA tournament, Nurse was stopped time and again by well wishers.

Thats the biggest lifestyle difference, Nurse said, seated in a meeting room at the Team Canada hotel in an upscale Shanghai neighbourhood. Of course, all over Toronto its happening. Getting on flights, you know but Im not sure how I feel about it. I try to be as gracious as I can about it. Im not sure. Its just wild to me, I guess. Its just different. Its just so different. Five months ago my life was pretty normal.

Nurse does recall one time where the attention got awkward and it had nothing to do with the well wishers themselves.

Nick Nurse encourages his team during a timeout during the friendly against the Australian Boomers at RAC Arena on August 17, 2019 in Perth, Australia. (James Worsfold/Getty Images)

One thing that felt a little uncomfortable to me was (in) Winnipeg with this team, Nurse said of a stopover to play an exhibition game against Nigeria before the team continued on to Australia. When we went to Winnipeg it felt like all of a sudden I was more of the focus than the team was. I didnt really like that very much.

Presumably, the good has far outweighed the bad for Nurse these past few months.

He puts that realization of a boyhood dream in Chicago right up there with his Arkells performance (not bad for a guy who just learned how to play the guitar) as the highlight of a real whirlwind three-month run since helping deliver the Larry OBrien trophy north of the border.

I would say both the Cubs singing and the (on-stage performance) with Arkells were right up there, he said. Hard to beat either one of them.

But in reality, every day since he and every member of the Raptors held that OBrien trophy aloft, there is a reminder of how that success has altered his life.

In China, before every game and following the playing of the national anthems, Nurse walks across the floor to shake hands with the opposing head coach. Invariably, almost consistently, comes the congratulatory message. The coaching fraternity is a tight-knit one and when one meets the man behind the reigning world champs, the accolades flow.

A lot them have gone out of their way to be very gracious in congratulating me, Nurse said. To say, Hey, we watched it or I watched and we were really pulling for you. It has been really nice. You walk across there to shake hands before a game and give them a Canada pin and a lot of them are like Man, we were watching every game and we were really pulling for you.

Ask the players here in China playing for Canada about the best parts of the experience and one of, if the not the first mention, is playing for Nurse, an NBA champion.

The level of coaching is amazing, centre Owen Klassen said earlier in the tournament. These guys are the top coaches in various leagues and Nick Nurse, obviously you could say hes the best coach in the world right now if you wanted to.

But whether it has been Klassen or Orlando Magic big man Khem Birch, Nurse and his staff have been getting rave reviews from the players.

Having achieved a number of his life goals this calendar year, one, or at least one that Nurse is ready to talk about, remains coaching a team in the Olympics. He was there as an assistant in 2012 with Great Britain but on his bucket list is to get there as a head coach.

He believes the possibility is there with Canada.

Yeah, I think from that moment (in London) I would have said I wonder how I could ever be involved again, Nurse said of his initial Olympic experience.

Great Britain went 1-4 in that tournament, beating China and almost knocking off the eventual silver medallists, Spain, before losing by a single point.

Nurse got a taste of the Olympic experience but he wants more. He did manage to meet the Queen in the Olympic Village in London, even shook her hand, but he missed out on marching in the opening ceremony.

Nurse signed on with Canada for this summer believing he would be coaching NBA talent for the most part and with a definite eye towards another Olympic experience.

That NBA talent he envisioned on his roster didnt materialize for this summer, but he remains optimistic it can down the road, perhaps as soon as next summers Last Chance Olympic qualifying tournament.

The disappointment of not having perhaps the best roster Canada could construct has in no way taken away from the enjoyment of the tournament or the lead-up to it.

Theres been lots to enjoy, Nurse said of his first summer with Canadas national team. First, from a logistics or tactical thing, its been a really overview learning experience for me to figure out where were going. Ive learned a lot about the setup, the team, the structure of FIBA, just everything. Im ready now. I see where we need to go and Im really ready.

And if that sounds like Nurse has plans, you are hearing right.

One hundred percent, 100%, he said. I feel really good about theres a lot of things, answers that got filled in for me.

Nurse is not the least bit daunted by the absence of the NBA talent this summer. He is as proud of this group as he possibly could be and has enjoyed coaching them. Only three of a possible 17 NBA types committed and only two Cory Joseph and Khem Birch wound up playing after Kelly Olynyk got hurt during an exhibition game.

I dont think were a million miles away from (getting) those guys, Nurse said of an NBA talent base that includes Jamal Murray, Dillon Brooks, RJ Barrett, Dwight Powell, Shae Gilgeous-Alexander and more. Its not like Im looking up this huge Jamal Murray mountain to climb, and figuring out how Im going to get there. (That goes for) a number of players, so I dont think its going to be as big a mountain to climb as everybody thinks.

Its at this point that Nurse pauses and gets a little uncomfortable with the subject.

I dont quite want to get into talking about that, he said. Lets finish it off with this group first, because a big chunk of this group has earned their way forward, right? So, I think that theres not going to be that many spots available next (summer).

But that doesnt mean Nurse isnt going to be out there working the NBA front lines to ensure hes got plenty of options.

One can, and Nurse has, imagined what it would be like to have his pick of the growing Canadian talent base in the NBA, but thats not his focus right now.

You can, I try not to, he said. Its not really going to make a difference to imagine until were done and then get to work and get some commitments.

And it glosses over the sacrifices this group has made. Nurse does not want to do that.

Nurse will be the first to tell you he has had one hell of a summer since winning an NBA championship.

Clearly, he has plans to keep the good times rolling. That goes both for the Raptors and for Canada Basketball.

mganter@postmedia.com

Read more from the original source:
Life has changed for Raptors coach Nick Nurse in wake of NBA title - Toronto Sun