Kia Nurse (born February 22, 1996) is a Canadian

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the

Phoenix Mercury The Phoenix Mercury are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, playing in the Western Conference (WNBA), Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded before the league ...

of the WNBA. She is also a basketball analyst featured on TSN. Nurse has played for the

Canada Women's National Basketball team The Canadian women's national basketball team represents Canada in international basketball competitions. They are overseen by Canada Basketball, the governing body of basketball in Canada. They are currently ranked fourth by FIBA. History Pa ...

. She was selected to play in the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Early years

Kia Nurse began playing basketball at the age of four, and by the time she was seven years old, she was playing in a competitive league. Nurse attended St.Vincent de Paul Elementary School. Nurse played basketball while attending St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

. During her playing career, she helped the team win three consecutive

OFSAA The Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) is an organization of student-athletes, teacher-coaches, student-coaches, teachers, principals, and sport administrators in Ontario, Canada. OFSAA is the second largest high school ath ...

high school championships in 2011, 2012 and 2013. She played for the Hamilton Transway Club team which won seven consecutive provincial championships.

College

Nurse played college basketball at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

Storrs, Connecticut Storrs is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in the New England town, town of Mansfield, Connecticut, Mansfield in eastern Tolland County, Connecticut, Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 15,344 at the 2010 Unite ...

for the

Huskies Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that mai ...

. In her time at UConn, Nurse played under head coach

Geno Auriemma Luigi "Geno" Auriemma (born March 23, 1954) is an Italian-born American college basketball coach and, since 1985, the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team. , he has led UConn to 17 undefeated conference sea ...

, alongside players such as

Breanna Stewart Breanna Mackenzie Stewart (born Baldwin; born August 27, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). In high school, Stewart was the National Gatorade Player o ...

Gabby Williams Gabrielle Lisa Williams (born September 9, 1996) is an American-French professional basketball player. She was drafted 4th overall by the Chicago Sky in the 2018 WNBA draft. In 2022 she was a EuroLeague champion with Sopron and was named the Fi ...

and

Napheesa Collier Napheesa Collier (born September 23, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Lynx of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). After playing college basketball for the UConn Huskies women's basketball, Uni ...

. Approximately 50 colleges and universities contacted Nurse to ask her to consider playing for their team. She initially narrowed down the list to four teams, Connecticut, Penn State, Indiana and Kentucky, but eventually chose Connecticut. After signing her

letter of intent A letter of intent (LOI or LoI, or Letter of Intent) is a document outlining the understanding between two or more parties which they intend to formalize in a contract, legally binding agreement. The concept is similar to a Heads of agreement ( ...

, she revealed that she had recorded a goal of playing for Connecticut when she was in Grade 7.

Statistics

, - , 2014–15 , align="left" ,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, 39 , 36 , – , .485 , .407 , .721 , 3.1 , 2.7 , 1.4 , 0.1 , 1.5 , 10.2 , - , 2015–16 , align="left" ,

, 38 , 38 , 28.3 , .442 , .369 , .753 , 1.9 , 2.7 , 1.3 , 0.1 , 1.3 , 9.3 , - , 2016–17 , align="left",

, 33 , 33 , 30.6 , .480 , .462 , .855 , 2.0 , 3.8 , 1.0 , 0.1 , 1.5 , 12.7 , - , 2017–18 , align="left",

, 33 , 33 , 33.1 , .519 , .442 , .809 , 3.5 , 2.7 , 1.2 , 0.3 , 1.2 , 13.5 , - , Career , , 147 , 144 , 30.6 , .483 , .423 , .784 , 2.6 , 3.0 , 1.2 , 0.1 , 1.4 , 11.4

Career

WNBA

At the

2018 WNBA draft The 2018 WNBA draft was the WNBA, league's draft for the 2018 WNBA season. On March 12, the league announced the draft would be held on April 12 at Nike, Inc., Nike New York City, New York Headquarters, a recently opened secondary headquarters for ...

, Nurse was drafted by the

New York Liberty The New York Liberty are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Liberty compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as part of the league's Eastern Conference. The team was f ...

in the first round, as the tenth overall pick. Nurse would join the Liberty alongside players such as Tina Charles and

Epiphanny Prince Epiphanny Prince (born January 11, 1988) is a Russian-American professional basketball player for the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and Galatasaray of Turkey as well as the Russia women's national basketball ...

. Nurse made her WNBA debut on May 20, 2018, scoring 17 points in an eventual 80–76 loss to the

Chicago Sky The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the 20 ...

. In June 2018, Nurse scored 34 points, a season-high amongst WNBA rookies, in the Liberty's 87–81 overtime victory over the Indiana Fever. In July 2019, Nurse was named as a starter for the

WNBA All-Star Game The Women's National Basketball Association All-Star Game, commonly referred to as the WNBA All-Star Game, is an annual exhibition basketball game played in the United States between the best players of the Western and Eastern Conference of ...

for the first time in her career. Her selection made her just the third Canadian to play in the All-Star Game. Nurse was selected by and joined Team Delle Donne for the game. Nurse also took part in the Three-Point Contest, but lost in the first round.

National Team

Youth Level

Kia Nurse was invited to play on the under-17 national team in the

FIBA Under-17 World Championship for Women The FIBA Under-17 Women's Basketball World Cup (formerly FIBA Under-17 World Championship for Women) is the women's international under-17 basketball championship organised by FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) ...

, held in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

in 2012. She averaged almost 14 points per game, and helped the team to a third place finish.

Senior Level

Nurse was invited to join the national team, to play in the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship for Women, held in

Xalapa Xalapa or Jalapa (, ), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (), is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In the 2005 census the city reported a population of 387,879 and the municipality of which ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

from September 21–28, 2013. She averaged ten points per game, and helped the Canadian National team to a second place, silver medal finish. Canada faced Cuba in a preliminary round and won 53–40, but in the championship game, Cuba prevailed 79–71. Nurse played on the Canadian national team in the 2014 FIBA World Championship. The team lost to Australia in the quarterfinals, then beat France and China to finish in fifth place. Nurse averaged almost 22 minutes per game at the point guard position, averaging almost seven points per games, fourth most on the roster, while being the youngest player on the roster. Nurse was a member of the

Canada women's national basketball team The Canadian women's national basketball team represents Canada in international basketball competitions. They are overseen by Canada Basketball, the governing body of basketball in Canada. They are currently ranked fourth by FIBA. History Pa ...

which participated in

at the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

held in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

July 10 to 26, 2015. Canada opened the preliminary rounds with an easy 101–38 win over Venezuela. The following day they beat Argentina 73–58. The final preliminary game was against Cuba; both teams were 2–0, so the winner would win the group. The game went down to the wire with Canada eking out a 71–68 win. Canada went on to defeat Brazil in the semifinal, 91–63. In front of a home crowd, the Canadians were able to take down the United States 81–73 and take home the gold-medal. It was Canada's first gold-medal in basketball in the Pan Am games. Nurse was the star for Canada with 33 points, hitting 11 of her 12 free-throw attempts and 10 of her 17 field-goal attempts including two of three three-pointers. Her performance led to her selection as the flag-bearer in the event's closing ceremonies. Nurse played for Canada at the 2015 FIBA Americas Women's Championship, a qualifying event held in

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

, Canada in August 2015. Canada won the first three games easily winning first place in the group for a spot in the semifinal against the second-place team in group B,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The semifinal game against Brazil was much closer. Canada led by only six points at halftime but gradually expanded the lead to end up with an 83–66 win, and a spot in the gold-medal game. The gold-medal game was a rematch with Cuba where Canada took home the win, 82–66. As the game wound down to the close, the crowd was chanting "Rio", "Rio", "Rio" in recognition of the fact that the win qualifies Canada for the Olympics in Rio in 2016. Nurse was the leading scorer for Canada with 20 points, and her overall performance earned her the MVP award for the entire event. In 2016, Nurse made her Olympic debut for Team Canada at the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. Canada finished in seventh place.

Career statistics

WNBA

Regular season

, - , align="left" ,

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, align="left" ,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, 34 , , 7 , , 22.8 , , .402 , , .294 , , .870 , , 2.4 , , 1.6 , , 0.7 , , 0.1 , , 0.9 , , 9.1 , - , align="left" ,

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, align="left" ,

, 34 , , 34 , , 29.4 , , .393 , , .353 , , .872 , , 2.5 , , 2.3 , , 0.7 , , 0.1 , , 1.6 , , 13.7 , - , align="left" ,

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

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, 21 , , 18 , , 27.5 , , .273 , , .238 , , .864 , , 2.9 , , 2.3 , , 0.5 , , 0.2 , , 2.2 , , 12.2 , - , align="left" ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, align="left" ,

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

, 32 , , 32 , , 26.1 , , .359 , , .353 , , .790 , , 3.5 , , 1.8 , , 0.5 , , 0.1 , , 1.5 , , 9.5 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , 4 years, 2 teams , 121 , , 91 , , 26.3 , , .361 , , .316 , , .856 , , 2.8 , , 2.0 , , 0.6 , , 0.1 , , 1.5 , , 11.0

Postseason

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, 6 , , 6 , , 21.8 , , .432 , , .455 , , 1.000 , , 3.3 , , 1.5 , , 0.2 , , 0.0 , , 0.7 , , 8.3 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , 1 year, 1 team , 6 , , 6 , , 21.8 , , .432 , , .455 , , 1.000 , , 3.3 , , 1.5 , , 0.2 , , 0.0 , , 0.7 , , 8.3

Personal life

Kia Nurse was born to Richard and Cathy Nurse and was raised in Hamilton, Ontario.

Richard Nurse Richard Nurse (born March 13, 1966) is a Canadian former wide receiver who played in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was selected by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the third round of the 1990 CFL Draft. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Nurse was ...

played in the CFL and Cathy Nurse was a basketball player at McMaster University. Her older siblings are Tamika Nurse, who played basketball for Oregon and Bowling Green, and professional hockey player

Darnell Nurse Darnell Nurse (born February 4, 1995) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and alternate captain for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nurse was selected by the Oilers seventh overall in the 2013 NHL Entry Dr ...

. She is also the niece of former

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Donovan McNabb Donovan Jamal McNabb (born November 25, 1976) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for thirteen seasons, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. Before his NFL career, he played football and b ...

, who is married to her aunt Raquel Nurse McNabb. Her cousin is

Sarah Nurse Sarah Nurse (born January 4, 1995) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player of the Canadian women's national ice hockey team. She made her debut with the national team at the 2015 4 Nations Cup. In 2018, she represented Canada at the 2018 Wi ...

, who played for the

Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey The Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey team is the hockey team that represents the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. History On October 8, 1999, the Bulldogs played the Wisconsin Badgers in the first ever Women's WCHA conference ...

program and competed at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

and

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...

for Team Canada.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nurse, Kia 1996 births Living people Basketball people from Ontario Basketball players at the 2015 Pan American Games Basketball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Black Canadian basketball players Canadian expatriate basketball people in Australia Canadian expatriate basketball people in the United States Canadian sportspeople of Trinidad and Tobago descent Canadian women's basketball players Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games New York Liberty draft picks New York Liberty players Nurse family Olympic basketball players of Canada Pan American Games gold medalists for Canada Pan American Games medalists in basketball Phoenix Mercury players Point guards Sportspeople from Hamilton, Ontario UConn Huskies women's basketball players Women's National Basketball Association All-Stars