Terry Stotts was fired by new owners Friday, ending the longest current coaching tenure in the Eastern Conference after just 11/2 seasons.
Five coaches, all in the Eastern Conference, have lost their jobs since the regular season ended less than a month ago. Boston (Doc Rivers) and Philadelphia (Jim O'Brien) have hired replacements; Toronto is still looking for a new coach. And New Orleans fired Tim Floyd on Friday.
Stotts went 52-85, the third-worst winning percentage in franchise history. The Hawks finished 28-54 this season, missing the playoffs a fifth straight year.
"It was obvious there was a lot of speculation after the season, but honestly, I didn't know which way it was going," Stotts told the Associated Press. "Having new ownership, there's always the possibility of change."
The Hawks and the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers were sold to a nine-person group of investors in March by Time Warner Inc., which took over the teams through mergers that gave it control of Turner Broadcasting.
The Hawks traded stars Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Theo Ratliff in the middle of the season, leaving Stotts with a lineup of mostly journeymen players. Atlanta has only four players under contract for 2004-05 - Chris Crawford, Jason Terry, Alan Henderson and Boris Diaw - and the team will be more than $20-million under the projected salary cap.
General manager Billy Knight said he had not talked to any potential replacements and didn't have any timetable for a hiring.
In New Orleans, Floyd's second chance as an NBA coach ended after one season. The Hornets fired Floyd days after the team lost in the first round of the playoffs to Miami. Owner George Shinn declined to discuss potential replacements. He said no decision had been made about Floyd's assistant coaches.
Floyd was hired by New Orleans last summer with the expectation of guiding the Hornets deep into the playoffs in the team's last year in the East before switching to the tougher Western Conference. But a combination of injuries and chemistry problems that Floyd struggled to control contributed to a 41-41 regular season. Floyd's overall NBA record, including playoffs, is 93-235.
Since the start of the 2002-03 season, there have been 24 coaching changes in the league. All 15 teams in the East have changed coaches at least once since the end of last season.
"The whole atmosphere right now I don't think is healthy for coaching," said former Milwaukee coach George Karl, who is an analyst for ESPN.
WNBA: Defending champion Detroit beat San Antonio 75-57 in a preseason game in Monterrey, Mexico, the first time teams from the league played outside the United States. League officials hope Thursday's game, played in front of 13,000, will attract a new fan base to men's and women's pro basketball teams in this city, 300 miles south of San Antonio, Texas.
