Just hours after the New Orleans Hornets eliminated the Dallas Mavericks from the playoffs, Mavs' owner Mark Cuban has fired head coach Avery Johnson, ESPN Radio-Dallas reports.
Johnson, the 2006 NBA Coach of the Year, was let go after the team struggled to compete with the younger and less experienced Hornets in the first round of the postseason. In the final game of the series, the Hornets led the entire way and at one point were ahead by as much as seventeen points before taking the series four games to one.
After Dallas struggled to secure a playoff seed in the tough Western Conference during the regular season, rumors started circulating that Johnson could be on the hot seat.
Despite taking the Mavericks to the Finals two years ago—where they would lose to the Miami Heat—Johnson has struggled in the playoffs in recent years.
Last season, the Mavericks were upset in the first round by the eighth seeded Golden State Warriors despite having the league's best regular season record and the league's Most Valuable Player in Dirk Nowitzki.
This season, Johnson couldn't find an answer for point guard Chris Paul who averaged a remarkable 24.8 points, 11.3 assists, and 2 steals throughout the series.
Even though New Orleans was the higher seed, many people thought this would be a very close series because for many of the Hornets' starters (David West, Tyson Chandler, and Paul) this would be their first time starting in a playoff series. Meanwhile, Dallas had playoff veterans Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzki, and Josh Howard who had a combined 224 playoff starts between them. Despite their experience, the Mavericks couldn't find a way to keep up with the Hornets and obviously, Cuban thinks it all begins with the coach.
Watching his team get knocked out of the playoffs early for two straight years must have been the last straw for Cuban, who is one of the game's most active general managers.
While other teams continue fighting for a championship, Cuban will be at home looking for potential coaching candidates. It's going to be a long offseason for the Dallas Mavericks.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2...-Avery-Johnson
Last edited by Jayem; 04-30-2008 at 02:01 PM.
PLEASE...PLEASE....PLEASE
Keep him AWAY from the Spurs!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mark Cuban should fire himself for trading for Kidd.
They fired him tonight?
That's harsh even if we're talking about Avery.
And, please Pop, DO NOT hire him.
Ugh- but then again, what if he gets a job as a broadcaster???
LOL wow,
if you saw cuban's look after they lost you could tell he was gonna be trigger happy this off season, but this is a bit quick I'd say.
wow, that was faster than i thought.
The Mongoloid didn't wait long to chop Avery down. What a POS Cuban is. His failure is wonderful.
The Mavs were in trouble even before the trade.
And Avery sucked as a coach before the trade too.
I hear that voice already
Local SA announcer? Please noo...I can't stand his voice either.
Thats pretty messed up.
They could have at least given it a few days, I mean, they do have a good bit of time off now!
Steve Kerr is going to take cue from Cuban...
heads are rolling tonight
+1
As for AJ, not really a surprise, only surprised by how much in a hurry Cuban was to fire him.
WOW that is really harsh by Cuban to do it that fast. I hope he joins the staff in SA i really do. Not his fault what happened with the Mavs. The players let him down.
There is/was a thread about this in the NBA forum.
In there it says Cuban basicly told Avery to win this game or he's fired.
I don't know how true that is so take it for whatever
yeah not classy at all... So dramatic
Can you imagine how it went down?
No one else is reporting this.
If I remember correctly, the Blazers front office did Rick Adelman nearly the same way back in the day.
Most Blazer fans were pissed. I wonder what Mavs fan overall thinks.
Like others have stated: harsh.
So far it's just in blogs and message boards.
This doesn't look too official but if it is, time to bring AJ home to SA.
Hopefully he does not sign with the Suns or Nuggets. You give him a built in offense and he'll figure out a defense to defend the Spurs.
i doubt he'd want to go from head coach to an assistant right away, he'll get hired somewhere, then when he gets fired again, maybe coaching under pop for awhile will teach him better, remember he learned under don nelson before he became a head coach, not the best of teachers.........
the way he was talking in his press conference was like he was fired already
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