a few others today also i noticed..
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Bucks fire Larry Krystkowiak as coach
MILWAUKEE (AP)?The Milwaukee Bucks have fired Larry Krystkowiak after his first full season as an NBA head coach.
?Larry and I met this morning, and came to the decision that he would not return,? new Bucks general manager John Hammond said Thursday.
The move has been expected since Larry Harris was dismissed as general manager last month. Bucks owner and U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl hired Hammond to replace Harris, and Hammond had promised to quickly deal with the coaching situation and make it a top priority.
Reached by The Journal Times of Racine, Krystkowiak said, ?I am not the coach anymore. I am going to sit at home the next couple of days and decompress.?
Hammond has ties to several veteran coaches without top jobs, including Larry Brown, Rick Carlisle and Alvin Gentry. Former Bulls coach Scott Skiles also could be considered for the job.
Touted as a potential playoff contender going into the season, the Bucks finished a dismal 26-56 and were one of the league?s worst defensive teams.
Krystkowiak worked out at the Bucks? practice facility Thursday morning, but had left the building by the time players gathered at 11 a.m. for a final team meeting.
?It?s just a situation that didn?t work out,? guard Michael Redd said. ?I?m sure he tried his best, no doubt about it. We tried our best. It just didn?t work out.?
Forward Charlie Villanueva said Krystkowiak shouldn?t take the fall for a bad season that ultimately should be blamed on the players.
Clearly aware he might be fired, Krystkowiak said facing the end of the season was difficult.
?Disappointment is one of the emotions that I am feeling,? he said. ?It?s just kind of a culmination of a bunch of stuff. And I am an emotional guy. I would be lying if I said other things weren?t creeping into my mind too. You go through a lot of things.?
Krystkowiak became a favorite of Kohl during his days as a player in Milwaukee, where he gained a reputation for gritty determination. He was hired as assistant to Terry Stotts before the 2006-2007 season and took over as head coach after Stotts was fired in March 2007.
But Krystkowiak?s toughness never carried over to the present-day Bucks, who had plenty of players willing to take shots on offense but few reliable defenders.
Milwaukee gave up 151 points in a loss to Chicago in its final home game Monday, often just standing and watching as Bulls players slashed to the basket.
Speaking before the Bucks? season-ending overtime loss at Minnesota on Wednesday night, Krystkowiak said the team had offensive talent but needed tougher players who weren?t worried about scoring.
?It?s more about a team concept instead of a bunch of talent,? Krystkowiak said. ?I think we have a lot of guys looking to score, and we?ve had a heck of a time with chemistry. I think that probably needs to be looked at a little bit more, the aggressive, physical, defensive-minded blend to go with some of the guys that we have.?
Earlier this week he said he wasn?t always allowed to coach the team the way he wanted. But he declined to elaborate on what pressures Harris or others in the front office might have placed on him.
?When you?re in the midst of it, it?s not a whole lot of fun, and I know coming out the other end of this that I?m going to be stronger for it,? Krystkowiak said. ?But right now I?d be lying if I said it was enjoyable.?
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Chicago Bulls fire interim coach Jim Boylan
The Chicago Bulls fired interim coach Jim Boylan on Thursday, likely the first of several changes after a disappointing season.
General manager John Paxson said Boylan was let go during a morning meeting at the Bulls? practice facility. Boylan left without commenting.
?It really just came down to the fact that I think we need the option to look at things differently,? Paxson said. ?I want to now be able to explore candidates and listen to different philosophies on how to (use) our personnel.?
The firing was the first move of what figures to be a busy offseason for a team that finished 11th in the Eastern Conference just one season after reaching the second round of the playoffs.
The Bulls won 49 games and a playoff series last season, but took a big step backward in 2007-?08, finishing 33-49.
They were 24-32 under Boylan, who was promoted from assistant to his first NBA head coaching job after Chicago fired Scott Skiles in December.
?I was brought in here in the middle of the season,? Boylan said a day before the Bulls ended his tenure. ?It?s kind of a tough situation. A lot of things happened.?
Still, Boylan described his experience as ?fun.?
?I had a lot of fun doing it,? he said. ?It was full of all kinds of experiences?some good, some not so good. Sitting in the head coach?s seat was comfortable and enjoyable. I loved the challenge.?
Paxson said he doesn?t ?have any one person in mind? to replace Boylan and that NBA head coaching experience is not required. He?s willing to consider an assistant or college coach. Former Indiana and Detroit coach Rick Carlisle might be considered, as well as Boston assistant Tom Thibodeau.
A year ago, the Bulls were preparing for what turned out to be a first-round sweep of Miami and their first series victory since the Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen era. They pushed Detroit to six games in the second round, but the optimism they brought to training camp seemed to disappear just as the season began.
Luol Deng and Ben Gordon turned down five-year contract extensions worth more than $50 million, and Kobe Bryant trade rumors only added to the angst. The Bulls got off to another slow start, as in the previous few years?but couldn?t break out of it this time.
?At times, this year, we let things bother us that I thought we were past,? Boylan said. ?I felt we had the formula for how to be successful and everybody understood it, but it seems like as you reflect back on the season, that wasn?t the case.?
Paxson said the Bulls ?lost our identity as a team?and our spirit.?
The Bulls were 9-16 when they fired Skiles. They missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2003-04 season, when Skiles took over early on for Bill Cartwright and Chicago finished 23-59. Skiles led the Bulls to the playoffs the next three seasons.
But neither he nor Boylan could turn things around this year.
The losses piled up, players lashed out. The hard-nosed defense and unselfish play of the previous three years never surfaced.
?A lot of things in this league aren?t fair,? guard Kirk Hinrich said. ?(Boylan) kind of got dealt a tough situation. The record is what it is. We?re done here. It?s just a position we didn?t want to be in.?
Guard Ben Gordon said Boylan was in an obviously difficult situation.
?But in this business, a lot of people have to deal with tough situations,? Gordon said. ?He?s a guy who will continue to get better as a coach because he puts effort into it.?
Boylan dealt with several tough situations this season.
Rookie Joakim Noah was suspended in January after a verbal outburst at assistant coach Ron Adams in practice. Initially a one-game suspension, his teammates voted to extend it to two. A short time later, Noah and Ben Wallace exchanged words following a blowout loss to Orlando.
Tyrus Thomas, apparently unhappy with his playing time, skipped practice and was handed a two-game suspension last month.
Chris Duhon missed a March 9 shootaround after being spotted the night before in Durham, N.C., at the North Carolina-Duke game; he was fined, benched for one game and inactive for another.
Bulls officials were not happy with his reaction??I haven?t been playing a lot anyway,? he said. It was true. Duhon?s minutes had been limited after Larry Hughes? arrival with Drew Gooden in the three-team deal that sent Wallace to Cleveland.
Another episode was coming, this one involving Andres Nocioni.
Nocioni blew up at Boylan after being lifted in the second quarter of a game against Indiana late last month and got sent to the locker room. Nocioni apologized two days later, another sorry episode in a sorry season for the Bulls.
Paxson called the outbursts ?disturbing? and ?out of character.?
To top it off, players did not develop the way he anticipated.
Deng, who looked like a budding star last season, missed 16 games in January and February with left Achilles tendinitis after sitting out three in November with lower back pain. He averaged 17.0 points and 6.3 rebounds.
Hinrich also struggled, averaging a career-low 11.5 points and 6.0 assists. Gordon, the team?s leading scorer, saw his average drop from 21.4 points to 18.6.
?I do think we need a different, or new, type of vibe with our team,? Paxson said. ?A different kind of energy.?
