The Brooklyn Nets fired Avery Johnson as head coach, after the franchise lost 10 of their last 13 games prior to opening the season with 11 wins in their first 15 games.
"We don't have the same fire now than we did when we were 11-4," the Associated Press quoted general manager Billy King as saying. "I tried to talk to Avery about it and we just can't figure it out. The same pattern kept on happening."
Assistant P.J. Carlesimo has been named interim coach and he will begin with Friday's home game against Charlotte Bobcats.
King refused to be drawn out on whether former L.A. Lakers coach Phil Jackson could take over from Johnson. King, though, revealed the owners had decided to fire Johnson after a telephonic discussion Thursday morning.
"With the direction we were going we felt we had to make a change," King added.
Johnson, who was coach of the month in November, had been heading the Nets since June 2010 and was in the last year of his $12 million contract.
"It's a really disappointing day for me and my family. It's my wife's birthday. It's not a great birthday gift," Johnson said. "I didn't see this coming.
"But this is ownership's decision. It's part of the business. Fair or unfair, it's time for a new voice and hopefully they'll get back on track."
As a coach of the Nets, Johnson had a record of 60-116. The Nets are currently 14-14, 6-1/2 games behind the archrivals New York Knicks in the Atlantic Division.
"Our goal is to get to the conference finals," King said. "We started out good and then we stumbled. We have to get back to playing winning basketball.
"It's the entire team. It's not like golf, where Tiger Woods can blame the caddie. It takes five guys on the court and they're all struggling.
"We have to figure out the ways to get back to winning. I don't know what happened. I'm not sure. But unfortunately, it did happen."
The Nets' suffered their fifth loss in six games against Milwaukee Wednesday, leading to the owners, who had invested millions of dollars in the offseason on building a team capable of challenging for honors, making the decision to fire Johnson.
Nets guard Deron Williams had also expressed his concerns about the offense, although King insisted Johnson was not fired because of those concerns.
Johnson joined the Nets after coaching the Dallas Mavericks for four seasons and helping them win the 2005-6 Western Conference championship. In seven NBA seasons he has a 254-186 record.
"You don't always get a fair shake as a coach," Johnson said. "I'm not the owner. If I were the owner, I wouldn't have fired myself today. But life is not always necessary fair. It's a business and in this business, the coach always gets blamed."
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