How marathon chalk talks in Nick Nurse’s basement spawned two NBA coaching careers

The house was a mess and the days were long, but the minds were whirring like machines and from such odd beginnings came the makings of two NBA coaching careers.

It was the summer of 2007 and a couple of long-time pals were doing some personal professional development, deconstructing their first season together with the Iowa Energy of what was then known as the D League.

Nate Bjorkgren would stop by Nick Nurse’s house shortly after dawn and the brainstorming would commence.

“Those were 12-hour days ... 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. nearly every day for an entire summer,” Bjorkgren said. “It was white boards all around his basement, everything written up there that you can think of: offence, defence,…