16-time NBA Champions Los Angeles Lakers fired Head Coach Mike Brown Friday after a miserable 1-4 start to the season.
The Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak announced assistant coach Bernie Bickerstaff would take charge as interim head coach of the Lakers against the Golden State Warriors. The team management, meanwhile, will search for Brown's replacement.
"The bottom line is that the team is not winning at the pace we expected this team to win, and we didn't see improvement," the Associated Press quoted Kupchak as saying.
The Lakers management's decision to fire Brown has surprised everyone because just two days back the franchise owner Jim Buss had supported the coach.
After playing the first five games, the Lakers have slipped to the bottom of the Western Conference. They lost to Dallas, Portland, LA Clippers and Utah and won only against Detroit.
The weak defense has been held responsible for team's disappointing performance in the opening games. Brown's new offensive strategy has also not clicked and the Lakers management was not convinced the situation would improve soon under Brown.
"We're not looking five or 10 years down the road," Kupchak said. "This team was built to contend this year. There's no guarantee that this team can win a championship, but we feel that it can be deeply in the hunt.
"We're also aware that our players ... are getting older, so our feeling is that we can contend at this level for another couple of years."
Brown understands the franchise, which is spending millions of dollars on players' contracts would expect better results.
"I have great respect for the Buss family and the Lakers' storied tradition and I thank them for the opportunity they afforded me," Brown said in a statement. "I have a deep appreciation for the coaches and players that I worked with this past year and I wish the organization nothing but success as they move forward."
The Lakers had hired Brown in May 2011 on a four-year contract worth 18 million. He was a replacement for the legendary Phil Jackson.
It is believed that the Lakers are looking at the possibility of bringing back Jackson. Kupchak did not rule out this possibility. "When there's a coach like Phil Jackson, one of the all-time greats, and he's not coaching, I think you would be negligent not to know that he's out there," he said.
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