Quin Snyder was coach of the D-League’s Austin Toros from 2007 to 2010, but even though it was — at the least — nearly a decade ago, he still remembers specific plays Toronto coach Nick Nurse ran against Snyder as coach of the Iowa Energy.
“Yeah, I still remember an out of bounds play he ran against our zone," Snyder laughed.
The two coaches met on Monday night for the first time since their D-League encounters, the first time in NBA history there’s been a meeting of former D-League Coaches of the Year.
Both Snyder and Nurse are cut from the same cloth: details-oriented coaches who have found their path from the D-League to assistant coaching to the NBA head coaching ranks.