Nick Nurse is one of the best modern NBA coaches to ever grace the game. During his run in the Eastern Conference, Coach Nurse faced off against many superstar players, but his rivalry with Joel Embiid is the one that has caught mainstream attention. The beef received national attention when Nick Nurse was seen jawing at Joel Embiid on the sidelines during game 2 of the 2022 playoffs between The Philidelphia 76’ers and Nurse’s Toronto Raptors. Surprisingly, Nurse had no idea that the duo even had a beef, till he watched a TV segment while he was in a hotel in Philidelphia, years later.
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Ironically, after parting ways with Coach Doc Rivers last season, Nick Nurse was chosen as the new head coach for the Philadelphia 76ers. Coach Nurse has had a lot of epic battles against the franchise and also has his animated history with Joel Embiid as well. While it’s reported that Nurse left way more lucrative offers on the table for the job at Philidelphia, it would be interesting how the team pans out under a coach who has experience with taking new teams to the finals.
Nick Nurse was unaware of his beef with Joel Embiid till he watched a show in Philidelphia
Nick Nurse was recently a guest on The Pat Bev Podcast. While on the podcast, Nick Nurse was asked to clarify his stand on his beef with 2022 MVP winner Joel Embiid. The new 76ers coach responded by saying:
“I am going, to be honest with you. I didn’t know we were going at it all that much all these years. I didn’t realize until one day I had my TV on by accident while I was in the hotel in Phili. They were showing this long clip of us going back and forth over the years. I don’t really remember us going at it like that. But the proof was there.“
The so-called ‘beef’ between the now player and coach duo started way back in 2022. During game 2 of the Eastern Conference playoff, Nurse and Embiid got into it, regarding calls. Nurse reminded Embiid:
“We are going to keep sending everyone. I was complaining about the fouls they were giving him. I told him we were going to keep fouling him. They can’t call all of the fouls, so we are going to keep fouling you“.
When Embiid trolled his current coach during a post-game press conference
The beef between Joel Embiid and Nick Nurse was mostly one-sided, as the 2022 MVP took shots at his current coach even during post-game press conferences. During a regular season game in 2022 between the Raptors and 76ers, Embiid took shots at Nurse and his team by saying:
“They don’t care about winning.”
Joel continued to take subtle digs at the veteran coach, as during a press conference after a game 1 against the Nets, The Philadelphia big man said:
“I saw after the game last time, they kind of took the Nick Nurse route of begging for free throws and calling out the referees.“
But the duo seems to have buried the hatchet as they both have expressed their deep desire for a Championship parade in Philidelphia. It would be interesting to see if Nurse can lift the championship curse in Philadelphia and finally bring the franchise its first championship as he did in Toronto.
