Sergio Scariolo, the head coach of Virtus Bologna in Italy, is reportedly among the finalists in the Raptors‘ head coaching search.
International outlet BasketNews.com passes along a report from Andrea Tosi of Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport that states Scariolo has a second meeting lined up with the Raptors. He initially interviewed with the team in Italy earlier this month.
A veteran coach who has spent the majority of his career in Europe, Scariolo is the current head coach of the Spanish national team and has previously led European teams such as Baskonia, Olimpia Milano, Khimki, and Real Madrid. He reportedly has one year left on his contract with Virtus Bologna.
Scariolo had a three-year stint as an assistant in the NBA as well, serving as a member of Nick Nurse‘s staff in Toronto from 2018-21, so the Raptors were already familiar with him. He won a championship with the franchise in 2019 and was briefly the club’s acting head coach when Nurse tested positive for COVID-19 in 2021.
A report on Sunday indicated that the Raptors were advancing to the second round of their head coaching interviews but didn’t clarify which candidates were still in the running to replace Nurse on the club’s bench.
While it remains unclear exactly who Scariolo is up against, Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez was identified over the weekend by Marc Stein as a legitimate candidate to land the Raptors’ job, so Fernandez may be another one of the team’s finalists.
I love when teams think out of the box for HC. Will it work(maybe/maybe not) but the alternative is 90% of the time just a recycled HC
Cavs went that route and David Blatt got a ring in 2016.
Jordi Fernandez is a real good guy. The type that listens and learns more than speaks. Idk about the Raptors job but when he gets a HCjob he’s going to do great. Players are going to respect him because they know he puts in the work and that he respects them.