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Andrew LopezESPN
For Sergio Scariolo, this was just another game.
The Toronto Raptors assistant coach slipped into the head coach’s seat, leading the team to a 122-111 victory over the Houston Rockets in Tampa Bay on Friday night. The win came despite Toronto missing star Pascal Siakam, head coach Nick Nurse and five other Raptors assistants due to health and safety protocols.
But even with Toronto down another assistant in Chris Finch, who earlier this week became Minnesota’s head coach, the Raptors still had a man experienced enough on the bench to do the job.
Scariolo has 25 years of experience as a coach abroad, and since 2009 he is the head coach of the Spanish national team, with which he won three times the FIBA Eurobasket tournament (2009, 2011 and 2015) and the FIBA World Cup (2019 ). He also coached Spain for a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics.
So no, this wasn’t his first rodeo.
In fact, Scariolo was head coach just last week, when he coached Spain for the Eurobasket qualifiers in Poland, on February 19 and 21. Spain won both games.
“It’s a 3-0 week,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said.
Originally quarantined this week after returning from Poland, Scariolo became available to join the team on Friday, just as health and safety protocols have eliminated coaching staff. Scariolo said he returned from Poland on Monday and spent the rest of the week away from the Raptors. He drove to Miami, where the Raptors played Wednesday, but remained separate from the team; he drove back to Tampa in the same car the day after the game.
Scariolo said the team began putting a plan into action on Thursday, with the Raptors having assigned tasks to coaches who could still be with the team until Friday morning. The team also had to change their routine before the game, as the tests did not return on time, so the Raptors had to have a joint filming session before reaching the floor without a pass.
“So he reacted to something different every time, but at the end of the day I got W, so who cares,” Scariolo said.
Scariolo said he had a video call with the Nurse before the game and credited the Nurse philosophy and teamwork he instilled in the coaching staff for helping make the transition as smooth as possible. He also attributed his own experience as head coach.
“Honestly, it didn’t feel too much of a difference from the 1,500 games we played before,” Scariolo said. “We felt we were ready to enter the game because everyone contributed and that’s what is needed in a team sport like basketball.”
Lowry and goalkeeper Fred VanVleet tried to minimize the situation as much as possible, but Lowry was careful to grab the ball after the buzzer and present it to Scariolo after the match. Scariolo said that basketball will go along with other balls that the players have given him following the games with medals or other championships throughout his career.
VanVleet said the team tried to keep things as long as possible so as not to try to overdo something that should not be corrected.
“I think I managed to do it pretty early on, once they made a decision that obviously those coaches were going to be out. I didn’t want to react too much to that,” VanVleet said. “I think it’s one of those things where you probably put a little too much stock, but the game doesn’t change.
“The way we play doesn’t change. The way we play doesn’t change. So just having a different voice there is obviously why you have a strong coaching staff for situations like this. Obviously, Sergio was a He’s been a great head coach for a long time. He does it at a high level, so connecting to him was pretty easy. “
The Raptors did not release the names of the coaches who missed the game, but Jim Sann, Jamaal Magloire and Mark Tyndale were spotted along the Raptors bench and received shouts from VanVleet and Lowry after the game.
Scariolo said he does not know how long he will serve as interim head coach, adding that the team will continue to operate on the fly until it finds out more. While she had spoken to the nurse before the game, she had not spoken to him before meeting with reporters after the game. There were more important things to take care of first.
“I will make sure I get the test, this is my first test and I don’t want to make a mistake right now,” he said. “We can’t afford it. Then we’ll definitely talk.”