The inevitable has finally went down as the Brooklyn Nets have officially fired head coach Lionel Hollins and reassigned general manager Billy King.
By Robby Sabo
The other shoe has finally dropped in the land of the Brooklyn Nets.
No longer is Lionel Hollins the head coach nor Billy King the general manager. The Nets, who currently sit 14th in the Eastern Conference with a dreadful 10-27 record have fired Hollins and reassigned King, via AP.
Assistant coach Tony Brown will assume head coaching responsibilities effective immediately.
Brooklyn is a loser of four straight games and an incredible nine at home at Barclays Center. The only thing worse than their porous play during the 2015-16 NBA campaign has been their attendance.
“It’s clear from our current state of affairs that we need new leadership,” owner Mikhail Prokhorov said in a statement. “With the right basketball management and coach in place, we are going to create a winning culture and identity and give Brooklyn a team that it can be proud of and enjoy watching.”
The Nets are now struggling on the backend of King’s plan that brought in a supposed super team a few seasons ago. Only Joe Johnson remains from the foursome of himself, Deron Williams, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce.
“At every step of the way, he has been aggressive in his quest to build a winning team and has been a key factor toward the Nets making the playoffs for each of the last three seasons,” Prokhorov said of King, who was in the last year of his contract.
Where the franchise goes from here is anybody’s best guess. One thing’s for sure: change was certainly needed.
