Nick Nurse's New Book Just Dropped & It Has Kawhi Leonard Drama

Nurse recounts the first time Kawhi yelled at him.
Nick Nurse's Kawhi Leonard Altercation Revealed In Head Coach's New Book
Chensiyuan | Wikimedia Commons Nickbarden | Wikimedia Commons
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It's official — NBA Coach of the Year Nick Nurse's new book has hit the shelves.

The book details Nurse's life, his coaching career, the Raptors, and "how to find a way to win — damn near anywhere."

And the head coach didn't hold out.

In an interview on ESPN's The Woj Pod, Nurse discussed what it was like to have Kawhi Leonard yell at him for the first time ever — an anecdote included in the book.

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Kawhi held up his hand and said 'I ain't passing for the (expletive) hell of it.'"

Nick Nurse

Leonard's harsh words for Nurse didn't stop there.

"He said 'My job's to score and then to draw double and triple teams then when I do, then it's your job to score.'"

Nurse said on the podcast that Kawhi's outburst was prompted by coaching advice.

Nurse advised the team to keep the ball moving as much as possible and passing it frequently. Kawhi disagreed with this and wasn't afraid to let him know.

At that point, Nurse says he and Kawhi hardly knew each other. The altercation happened during the team's first meeting, early in the 2018-2019 season.

"You could have heard a pin drop," said Nurse of the incident to ESPN.

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  • Abby Neufeld
    Abby Neufeld was a writer at Narcity Canada. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Professional Communications at the University of Victoria. Her past work has been published in The Toronto Star, Bitch Media, Canadian Dimension, This Magazine, and more. In 2019, Abby co-founded The New Twenties, an environmentally-focused literary and arts magazine.

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