Nate Bjorkgren: The Road Less Traveled

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Friends,

I had something else lined up for today, until news broke yesterday that the Indiana Pacers were hiring Toronto Raptors assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren to be their next head coach.

What’s the big deal?

From teaching high school history to winning a championship on the biggest stage in basketball, Bjorkgren’s journey to the mountaintop is truly incredible.

Let’s run through it.

(📸 / NBA)

Whether its former players being offered assistant roles early in their career, or individuals that grew up around the game extending their family tradition, it feels like the majority of head coaches, regardless of sport, receive some kind of head start.

Don’t get me wrong — connections are a part of life, and I have no problem with that, but when it comes to Nate Bjorkgren—the new head coach of the Indiana Pacers—he certainly took the road less traveled.

After graduating high school in 1994, despite not being a great player, 19-year old Nate Bjorkgren refused to give up his love for the game of basketball. Instead, he chose to walk-on at the University of South Dakota.

The school’s assistant coach at the time?

Nick Nurse….we’ll come back to that.

After transferring to a smaller DIII school, followed by an underwhelming collegiate career, Bjorkgren graduated with one singular focus — “I just knew I wanted to coach basketball.”

There was just one issue though, Bjorkgren wasn’t a great player and had no coaching experience or relevant connections — not exactly a recipe for early success.

His only coaching offer came from a local high school in Iowa, where his duties would include coaching basketball, football, and baseball, teaching history class, and even driving the school bus — Bjorkgren accepted anyways.

“I wouldn’t trade it for the world, it made me grow up very quickly”, says Bjorkgren when looking back on his time coaching HS basketball in Iowa.

Five years later, and a cup of coffee in Phoenix, a connection finally paid off for Bjorkgren. Nick Nurse, now head coach of the D-League Iowa Energy, called up Bjorkgren offering an assistant position with the team.

The only problem?

The position was unpaid — again, Bjorkgren accepted anyways.

For the next three years, Bjorkgren worked under Nick Nurse learning the game and making a total of $3,000. With no other choice, Bjorkgren also worked as a part-time gym teacher to pay his bills.

With the Iowa Drive experiencing gradual improvement, culminating with a D-League championship, Nate Bjorkgren finally got his own shot — this time as head coach of the Dakota Wizards, the Golden State Warriors D-League Affiliate (now named the Santa Cruz Warriors).

Similar to every other opportunity in his life, Bjorkgren not only bet on himself to succeed but delivered on that promise.

Within 5 years Nick Nurse was back in the D-League Finals, this time facing off against a familiar foe — his friend and colleague Nate Bjorkgren.

Nurse would win the title, getting the best of his former protege, but with an NBA promotion to follow, it set off a chain reaction of multi-year events that culminated with Nurse hiring Bjorkgren as an assistant again — this time with the Toronto Raptors of the NBA.

(📸 / Slam Magazine)

As the saying goes, “the rest is history.”

Since naming Nurse head coach in 2018, and hiring Bjorkgren as an assistant, the Raptors have been one of the best teams in the NBA — winning the 2019 NBA championship in the process.

So now that Nate Bjorkgren finally has a shot to run his own NBA franchise, what’s the lesson?

Have a singular focus, don’t be afraid to start from the bottom, form good connections, and—most importantly—work hard.

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Extra Credit

Rather watch than read?

Check out this video the Toronto Raptors released on coach Nate Bjorkgren’s journey last season — it’s where I pulled the majority of this info from and I think you’ll really enjoy it.

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