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Luol Deng, the captain of the Great Britain Olympic basketball team, currently finds himself embroiled in the Chicago Bulls' efforts to enjoy an extended run in the NBA play-offs but when the NBA's Development League finals open in Texas tonight they will offer a different perspective on the strides being taken by his GB national team.The Rio Grande Valley Vipers and Iowa Energy meet in the first game of the best-of-three series to determine the winners of what is, effectively, the NBA's reserve team league. The relevance, for the growing number of British basketball fans at least, is that the opposing coaches in the finals are in charge of the GB national side.
Chris Finch, head coach of the GB team since its formation in 2006, is aiming to regain the title he won with the Vipers last season while his GB assistant Nick Nurse, having already robbed his friend of the coach of the year title he won in 2010, is aiming to go one better and lead the Energy to the D League title this week.
The two coaches, both Americans, have a connection with Britain dating back to the early 1990's when they played in the British Basketball League, before coaching against each other for the first time in 1997 when Finch took over as head coach of the Sheffield Sharks and Nurse was already ensconced at the Birmingham Bullets.
Their paths have crossed numerous times since over the past 14 years, for the past three summers on the GB team where Finch has made Nurse his assistant, and for the past two years in the D League where the pair have earned reputations as two of the brightest young coaches in the game.
Iowa are so convinced that Nurse, 44, will be signed as an assistant by an NBA team this summer that they took the unusual step last week of naming Nate Bjorkgren as their "coach in waiting." Meanhwile, Finch, 41, is employed by the Houston Rockets who own the Vipers and operate it as their farm team. Last week, Houston parted company with veteran head coach Rick Adelman and, while Finch's inexperience will rule him out of contention for that job at this stage of his career, his two excellent seasons with the Rockets' reserve team have not gone unnoticed.
Their rising prominence also opens the possibility that by the time GB tip off the European Championship Finals in Lithuania in September, their primary coaches could well be working on NBA benches, an indication of Britain's growing credibility in world basketball.
"It's an exciting time for GB," said Nurse. "And that's down to all the hard work Finchy put in from day one of the programme. We have the Euros this summer and we're really looking forward to seeing how we stack up against the big guns because the Olympics are just around the corner for us.
"I think that, with a big push from Chris, the GB team has had some respect and credibility over here, in NBA circles, for a couple of years now and it continues to grow. NBA people have known we have talent like Luol, (Detroit Pistons guard), Ben Gordon, (ex-NBA player) Pops Mensah-Bonsu and some high level guys in Europe. But now they have seen what Chris has done in a short amount of time to turn GB into a real team and British basketball is no longer seen as a joke."
GB's new-found credibility is reflected in the fact that the USA national team will play them in a warm-up game for the Olympics at the MEN Arena in Manchester in July 2012 although, before then, Finch and Nurse have more pressing matters as they renew their rivalry in the D League Finals.
"I look back sometimes on how long we've known each other and how often our paths have crossed and it's a little eerie," said Nurse. "But it's cool, too. It shows you how small the basketball world can be sometimes.
"We know each other so well, especially our coaching styles and what we're trying to achieve, that it can be a little weird. But we've already coached against each other four times this season alone so it's not too bad."
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/04/24/gb-coaches-take-centre-stage-in-nba-development-league-finals/
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