Suddenly Reeling, the Nets Fire Their Coach

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — It was 30 months ago that the images rose in Midtown Manhattan, a blue-tinted mural of an international hip-hop icon and a Russian billionaire, under the audacious heading “The blueprint for greatness.”

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Coach Avery Johnson did not blame Deron Williams for his firing. “He’s one player,” said Johnson, whose team had lost 10 of 13.

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Avery Johnson was hired by the Nets in June 2010 and compiled a 60-116 record over two-plus seasons.

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General Manager Billy King said Avery Johnson was not reaching his team. “I have a pretty good pulse of players,” King said.

It was clear then that Mikhail D. Prokhorov would have no use for subtlety or small ambitions as the new owner of the Brooklyn-bound Nets. He wanted to own New York, to “turn Knicks fans into Nets fans” and to win a title in five years.

The blueprint left no room for patience and zero room for error in the delicate relations between a headstrong coach and a hardheaded franchise star.

On Thursday, Avery Johnson became the first head coach fired by the Brooklyn Nets because he failed to reach Deron Williams and because the Nets had slipped to 14-14 after a promising 11-4 start — and these things were most certainly related.

But Johnson was fired, too, because the hype very quickly outpaced the reality in this maiden season in Brooklyn. The chic uniforms, the cool arena and the remade roster made the Nets easy to embrace. They invoked Jackie Robinson, borrowed a flagpole from Ebbets Field and traded on every ounce of Brooklyn zeitgeist. As Prokhorov and his lieutenants are now learning, it is easier to be hip than good.

The decision to fire Johnson on Thursday morning came directly from Prokhorov, barely 12 hours after the Nets lost their 10th game in December, a slide that threatened to obliterate all of the franchise’s promises of a transformative season.

“Watching us, we just didn’t have the same fire that we had when we were 11-4,” General Manager Billy King said at an afternoon news conference. “Talking to Avery, we tried to figure it out. But, just wasn’t able to pinpoint what was missing.”

Johnson was “blindsided” by the decision, according to a close friend, but the signs of trouble were becoming more glaring by the day. The Nets had lost five of their last six games, including blowouts against the Knicks, the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks over an eight-day span.

The Nets’ two biggest stars, Williams and Joe Johnson, have struggled miserably for most of the season. Several key role players seem lost, most notably C. J. Watson. The team seems remarkably fragile, every injury and every untimely turnover sending everyone into a panic.

Nothing was more ominous, however, than Williams’s decision, on Dec. 18, to publicly broadcast his discontent with Avery Johnson’s offense. Johnson tried to placate Williams with some adjustments to the playbook, but Williams kept missing shots and the losses kept piling up.

The relationship between Williams and Johnson has been uneasy since the start, but it eroded this season under the weight of greater expectations. Johnson’s lack of job security — he was in the final year of his contract and was denied an extension last summer — only hurt his standing, as Johnson himself conceded.

“In this business, you got to have the power, in terms of the ability to coach — and the respect,” Johnson said in a farewell news conference. “It would help if you do have a contract that the players respect. That’s the nature of our business.”

By the time Johnson was fired, he had lost several members of the locker room. Williams was the most obvious one, and his decision not to play Wednesday night in Milwaukee — citing a wrist injury that he had played through all season — only fueled speculation that he had, as one friend of Johnson’s said, “totally quit on Avery.”

Suspicion also surrounded Kris Humphries, who went on the inactive list this week — right after Johnson yanked him from the starting lineup — because of a previously unmentioned abdominal injury.

King said on Thursday that he expected both Williams and Humphries to be available Friday night, when P. J. Carlesimo, Johnson’s top assistant, will make his debut as the interim head coach.

Although there were no other overt actions, the locker-room discontent was fairly widespread. Several players were unhappy with their playing time, the offense or both.

“I have a pretty good pulse of players,” King said. “Not just Deron, but all our guys. I just got a sense that, as I told Avery this morning, that for some reason, he just wasn’t reaching them anymore.”

Williams may have been the only player to air his complaints in public, but King insisted, “To try to pinpoint this all on Deron, it’s not fair.”

Johnson absolved Williams of blame, saying: “I don’t think it’s fair for anybody to hang this on Deron. He’s one player. We had 15 players, and it’s up to the coach really to try to maximize the team.”That challenge now falls to Carlesimo, an N.B.A. veteran, who will be presiding for the foreseeable future. King seemed to be in no rush to conduct a national search.

Two of the best available candidates, Phil Jackson and Stan Van Gundy, have already signaled through their representatives that they are not interested. John Calipari has strong ties to the franchise and is close to Brett Yormark, the Nets’ chief executive, but his name will not be on the search list, according to a person with knowledge of the front office’s plans.

The reinvention of the Nets was never going to be instantaneous, no matter how many sleek black jerseys they sold. Johnson knew as much when he signed his contract in June 2010 and committed himself to two years of losing while waiting for the payoff. The roster transformation is still unfinished, as Johnson noted Thursday, alluding to the likelihood of another trade or two in the coming weeks.

The roster will get another talent infusion. The Nets will inspire another wave of hope, and maybe even make another charge up the standings. But the first coach in Brooklyn Nets history will not be around to enjoy the ride.

“This is not about the fair game,” Johnson said. “A lot of times it’s about the blame game.” 

Source:http://www.nytimes.com