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He had a record of 28-23 before getting the axe. From AP-
The Phoenix Suns have fired coach Terry Porter, just four months into his first season with the club and the sputtering team barely in playoff contention. Assistant Alvin Gentry was appointed interim coach.
Phoenix (28-23) lost five of eight going into the All-Star break and trails Utah by one game for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.
Gentry promised a return to the fast-paced style that best utilizes the team’s talent, particularly the skills of playmaker Steve Nash.
“We are who we are and I think we have to go back to trying to establish a breakneck pace like we’ve had in the past,” Gentry said at a news conference announcing his promotion.
The Suns are the eighth team to fire a coach this season, meaning more than one-quarter of the league’s coaches are gone at the All-Star break.
Most of the eight coaches who lost their jobs were with bad teams and you say their earned the pink slip. The firing of Porter and Maurice Cheeks in Philadelphia look shaky to me. Is four months as head coach with an organization enough time to prove yourself?
Once his playing career is over. From the Orlando Sentinel-
BOSTON – Center Shaquille O’Neal was traded from the Miami Heat to the Phoenix Suns last month, but the Orlando Magic — the team with whom he started his high-profile career — never seem far from his thoughts.
Wednesday was no exception.
O’Neal, who was in Boston preparing to play the Celtics Wednesday night, said after a morning practice that he hopes to take over management of the Orlando Magic when he retires as a player following the 2009-10 season.
He also expects to bring Grant Hill — former Magic player and current teammate with the Suns — along to help him.
“Grant will be the team president — he’s a bright guy — and I’ll be the general manager,” O’Neal said. “I’m serious. They need me down there with the new arena coming. Grant and I are coming to do the job.”
O’Neal has talked a few times over the years of returning to Orlando to play — although he said now he will finish his career in Phoenix — and also of returning eventually to become the Orange County Sheriff.
I seem to recall Magic Johnson once saying he wanted to be a US senator. As my wife says, it is nice to dream.
Anyone want an aging, often injured, overpaid basketball center who dabbles in police work on the side?
The Heat has told center Shaquille O’Neal’s representation that it is talking about trading him and he should be prepared for the possibility of a deal, according to two officials close to the situation. Phoenix has discussed sending forward Shawn Marion and point guard Marcus Banks to the Heat in return for O’Neal.
Asked for confirmation, one of O’Neal’s representatives said O’Neal has been made aware that discussions with Phoenix are serious and ongoing, but that a deal was not definite.
Dallas also has been mentioned as a potential destination, though the Heat had not immediately informed O’Neal of that possibility.
O’Neal, 35, was shocked by the turn of events, an associate said. O’Neal helped lead the Heat to the 2005-06 championship, but Miami has struggled since, losing in the first round of the playoffs last season and opening this season with a league-worst 9-37 record.
*****
O’Neal, who has been out with a hip injury, has two years left on his contract after this season. He will be paid $20 million each of the next two seasons.
I wish the Heat good luck trying to trade O’Neal. They will need it. O’Neal’s productive days are over with. He also carries an immense salary. I wouldn’t trade for him, but if the rumors are right there are teams out there willing to take a chance. Miami needs to re-build and O’Neal won’t be part of the Heat’s future. May as well move on now if the opportunity presents itself.
AP reports Shaq may be headed to the Phoenix Suns.
The wolves have won two in a row now. From AP-
MINNEAPOLIS – Al Jefferson and the Minnesota Timberwolves believe they’re headed for better days. Beating the Phoenix Suns — again — is surely a decent sign of progress.
Jefferson had a career-high 39 points and 15 rebounds, and the Timberwolves won two in a row for the first time this season, 117-107 over the Western Conference leaders on Wednesday night.
“I think they have kind of turned the corner,” Suns coach Mike D’Antoni said.
Amare Stoudemire led Phoenix with 33 points, but only 19 of them came in the last 43 minutes. The Suns, whose 30-13 record is behind only Boston for league supremacy, had their four-game winning streak stopped.
If the Timberwolves can win two in a row maybe the Miami Heat can too. First Miami will have to win a single game, right now they have lost 14 in a row and with Shaq out for at least two weeks, a single triumph seems fleeting at this moment.
Being a masochist seems to be essential at present if you’re a South Florida sports fan. From the Miami Herald-
For 43 minutes, Shaquille O’Neal, Jason Williams, Udonis Haslem and Ricky Davis pushed the NBA’s worst offense into high gear to stay with the Suns. Then Steve Nash hit his stride.
Nash scored 11 of his team’s final 13 points and rallied the Suns from a five-point deficit late in the fourth quarter to beat the Heat 106-101 on Friday at AmericanAirlines Arena.
For a while the Heat, which came in averaging a league-worst 82.9 points per game, beat the Suns at their preferred up-tempo pace and led 86-81 with less than 10 minutes left.
But Nash took over with his deep shooting and produced a flawless finish. He scored 14 of his game-high 30 in the fourth, and made all five of his field-goal attempts, including four three-pointers.
That performance overshadowed the most productive effort of the season for the Heat (0-5), which continues to struggle as it waits for leading scorer Dwyane Wade to return from May knee and shoulder surgeries.
I’ll be the first to admit, I hardly follow basketball. My father(who youth coached Notre Dame and New York Knick basketball player Toby Knight) had a saying about this sport. “If you don’t watch a game till the last five minutes, you’re not missing much.” That can be said about the whole Heat season so far. As Matt Watson via Rick at SOTP points out, the Heat are 0-18. Five regular season games this year, all seven exhibition games prior to the season, a first round playoff sweep by the Chicago Bulls last spring, and the last two games from the 06-07 season. If you thought the Dolphins are bad enough, now South Floridians have the Heat too. Not to mention the underperforming Florida Panthers. Maybe I should switch allegiance back to the team of my youth. Oops, the New York Jets are 1-7. What’s a man to do?
He was a part of three NBA Championship teams. I remember Johnson when he played for the Celtics. The mid-eighties being about the only time I followed basketball. RIP Dennis.
AP- AUSTIN, Texas – Dennis Johnson, the star NBA guard who was part of three championship teams, died Thursday at 52. “He is deceased and is in our building. He will be autopsied,” said Mayra Freeman, a spokeswoman for the Travis County medical examiner’s office.
Johnson, a five-time All-Star and one of the great defensive guards, played on title teams with the Boston Celtics and Seattle SuperSonics. He had been coaching the Austin Toros of the NBA Development League.
Johnson played 14 seasons, retiring after the 1989-90 season. He was the NBA Finals MVP in 1979 with Seattle, with his other titles coming with Boston in 1984 and 1986.
He averaged 14.1 points and 5.0 assists. When he retired, he was the 11th player in NBA history to total 15,000 points and 5,000 assists. Johnson made one all-NBA first team and one second team. Six times he made the all-defensive first team, including five consecutive seasons from 1979-83.
Johnson was born Sept. 18, 1954, in Compton, Calif. He played in college at Pepperdine and was drafted by Seattle in 1976. Johnson was traded to Phoenix in 1980 and Boston in 1983.
…almost. An interesting factoid in Bill Simmons’ latest column:
In a related story, the Suns are 26-2 in their last 28 games. Here were their two losses:
Dec. 22: They lose to the Wizards in OT (144-139) in a game that Arenas tied with a 3-point play in regulation, then Nash missed a wide-open 3 that could have ended it.
Dec. 28: They lose in Dallas by two (101-99) when Nowitzki made a jumper with 0.1 seconds left.
With two reasonable breaks (Nash making the 3-pointer, Nowitzki missing the jumper), the Suns could be working on a 28-game winning streak right now. I’ve mentioned that to three people over the last 48 hours and all of them said the same thing: “Wait a second … whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??????”
Truth be told, I’ve been concentrating more on the Mavericks’ 31-4 record since their horrid 1-4 start, and my Cavs’ 8-4 (.667) record against Western Conference teams, which is better than anyone but Milwaukee’s 10-5 (.667) among East teams. While a few teams hover around .500 against the West, only the Cavs and Bucks seem to actually play well against them, which means the Cavs may be the only hope the East has of winning the NBA championship this year.
It’s hard to tell if the Cavs can hold onto the #1 seed in the East, but if they can, they have a legitimate shot at the title. They’re one of the best home teams in the league at 15-3, and have finally started winning on the road as well, winning two of four to date on their 7-game West Coast trip (8-11 on the road overall). With homecourt advantage in the East against a group of teams who all struggle on the road but Detroit (who aren’t dominant at home), they can make it to the Finals. Once there, they’d love to face the Spurs, who they swept the season series from this year.
Better the Spurs than the Mavs or Suns…
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