Former two-time BBL Coach of the Year Nick Nurse will lead Toronto Raptors in the NBA Finals – starting on Friday morning (UK time).

The Canadian franchise takes on Golden State Warriors in the best-of-seven finale for the first time with Nurse having forged his coaching career in the BBL.

Nurse led Manchester Giants to the Play-Offs title in the 1999-00 season after picking up his first Coach of the Year award before re-claiming the accolade following a BBL Championship triumph with Brighton Bears in 2003-04.

He began his coaching career in the BBL as a player coach with Derby Rams in the 1990-91 season, averaging 20.1 points per game and would go onto coach over 400 league games with spells at Birmingham Bullets and London Towers, also.

The last @RidersBball win was @robpaternostro 335 win in @BBLofficial, taking him past @Raptors coach Nick Nurse into fourth on the all-time wins list pic.twitter.com/uLbR2xgXk4 — Daniel Routledge (@dan_routledge) March 5, 2019

Nurse was also previously an assistant coach for GB’s Senior Men – under Chris Finch, current associate head coach at New Orleans Pelicans – culminating in the 2012 Olympics.

The Raptors links to British Basketball do not end there with London-born OG Anunoby in his second season, while assistant coach Phil Handy previously played under Nurse at Manchester Giants in the 1999-00 season and earlier, president Masai Ujiri played 11 games with Derby Storm in the 1996-97 season before a short spell with Watford Royals the following season.

List of trophies won by Nurse in the BBL:

1996 Play-Offs – Birmingham Bullets

1999 Trophy – Manchester Giants

1999-2000 Northern Conference – Manchester Giants

2000 Play-Offs – Manchester Giants

2000-2001 Southern Conference – London Towers

2003 National Cup – Brighton Bears

2003-04 BBL Championship – Brighton Bears

2005 BBL Cup – Brighton Bears