cmonkee
Star Player
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Posts: 5301
Location: Redondo Beach
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 Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:11 pm Post subject: Casey - T-wolves coach fired |
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| Quote: | Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Dwane Casey was fired Tuesday, halfway into another season mired in mediocrity.
"I've been in basketball 29 years, and this is going to be my first time out of basketball," Casey told ESPN.com's Chris Sheridan. "But you understand what you're getting into when you enter this business."
Assistant coach Randy Wittman will take over the head coaching duties, ESPN's Ric Bucher reported.
The Timberwolves are 20-20 and currently in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, but it was not enough to salvage Casey's job.
"I'm not bitter," Casey told Sheridan. "It's a situation where today we're in the playoffs. I'm proud that I've given them a lot of hard days' work and never shortchanged them."
Casey thought the "trigger games" were an embarrassing blowout on their home court Jan. 17 at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks and the Jan. 19 double-overtime home loss to the Detroit Pistons, a game in which guard Ricky Davis was seen leaving the court, apparently irritated that he had been benched, and star forward Kevin Garnett was ejected after instigating a fight with the Pistons' Antonio McDyess.
Both players were suspended one game following the incidents -- Davis by the team and Garnett by the league.
The Timberwolves are in Portland, where the news was delivered to Casey by team executives Jim Stack and Fred Hoiberg. Casey also spoke with McHale.
Casey was hired by the Timberwolves on June 17, 2005. Longtime coach Flip Saunders was fired during the 2004-05 season and vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale filled in for the remainder of that season.
Minnesota was 33-49 last year in Casey's first season.
Wittman spent a total of nine seasons with Minnesota, also serving as an assistant coach from 1994-95 to 1998-99. He served as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers for two seasons, compiling a 62-102 record (.378) from 1999-2001. Prior to his first stint in Minnesota, Wittman spent one season each as an assistant coach with Indiana (1992-93) and Dallas (1993-94). |
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