Mikhail Prokhorov doesn’t like mediocrity; Pulls the trigger to sack Brooklyn Nets head coach Avery Johnson....
After a 14-14 start to the season, the Brooklyn Nets have finally decided to sack their head coach Avery Johnson.
Assistant P.J. Carlisemo has been named as the interim head coach, and will now be marshalling the side until the Nets find a suitable person from a host of options including Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, Stan Van Gundy, Nate McMillan, Mike Dunleavy, Brown, and ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy and Flip Saunders.
"I just got a sense, as I told Avery this morning, that he just wasn't reaching them anymore," general manager Billy King said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
Mikhail Prokhorov, the franchise owner, who was indicated by Billy King as the man behind the decision also thanked Johnson for his contributions.
"The Nets' ownership would like to express thanks to Avery for his efforts and to wish him every success in the future," principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov said in a statement.
The Nets got off to a brilliant start to the season, winning 11 of their first 15 games, but then saw a slump which had them lose 10 of the next 13. The major reason for the skid has been the shooting slump of star point guard Deron Williams, who openly stated last week that he was not comfortable in Johnson’s offensive system which focussed on isolation offence rather the pick and roll style of play the point guard was used to under Jerry Sloan at Utah Jazz.
Billy King however refused to blame Williams for the firing;
"To pinpoint this all on Deron is not fair. He was not the deciding factor in this decision," King said. "It was something in talking with ownership we didn't like the direction we were going."
The Nets are now primarily interested in veteran options and among them P-Jax is at the top of the list. There are also speculations that Williams’ former coach Jerry Sloan might be offered to make a comeback in NBA, but given the messy divorce between him and the point guard at Jazz, it is highly unlikely.
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