Raptors FIRE title-winning coach Nick Nurse - as disgraced Ime Udoka 'emerges as serious option'

The Raptors have fired coach Nick Nurse after a 41-41 season, according to various reports.

Nurse compiled a 227-163 record with the team, and led Toronto to a championship in the 2018-19 season, his first year in charge.

However, the team hasn't won a playoff series since the 2020 bubble and missed the playoffs both this season and in 2020-21.

The Raptors finished as the No. 10 seed in the East this year before falling to the Bulls in the play-in tournament.

According to ESPN, ex-Celtics coach Ime Udoka is 'expected to be a serious candidate' for Nurse's departed role.

Nick Nurse has been fired from Toronto but could quickly resurface in Houston, ESPN said

Ime Udoka was suspended by the Celtics for an affair with a colleague before being replaced

Udoka led Boston to the Finals last year in his first season in charge, but was suspended and eventually fired by the organization for having an affair with a colleague.

She served as a team liaison arranging travel, lodging and game tickets for Celtics family members at home and on the road. 

Nurse may not be on the market for very long either.

ESPN said he will be a 'prominent candidate' for the vacant Rockets job, which Udoka has also been linked to. 

The now-former Raptors coach was named the NBA's Coach of the Year in 2020, and earned the job after spending five years as a Toronto assistant.

Before that he spent time in the G-League (then the D-League), and also spent more than a decade in England honing his craft as a coach.