LOS ANGELES (AP) -The winless New Jersey Nets fired coach Lawrence Frank on Sunday, a few hours before they attempted to avoid matching the worst start in NBA history.
Assistant Tom Barrise temporarily replaced his friend, coaching the 0-16 Nets against the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.
Though Frank’s departure had been widely rumored while New Jersey lost every game in the season’s first 4 1/2 weeks, Frank’s players claimed they were shocked when their energetic coach showed up at their morning team meeting in Los Angeles not wearing his Nets gear.
“It’s tough, because he was the hardest worker on the team,” center Brook Lopez said. “He’s so passionate about what he does. It was a rough situation, and he did a great job of not using our injuries as an excuse. He came in every night and had us prepared.”
for Frank until they return from their four-game road trip Monday. Their next game is Wednesday at home against Dallas.
Frank’s 225 victories are the most in franchise history, and he had a career .500 record before this disastrous, injury-plagued season. He also was the longest-tenured coach in the Eastern Conference, but his steady work couldn’t repair a roster featuring eight players who already have missed multiple games with injuries, following a major offseason personnel overhaul.
“He wasn’t dealt a royal flush,” said Rafer Alston, who joined New Jersey in the June trade sending star scorer Vince Carter to Orlando and gutting the Nets’ payroll. “It’s almost like he had a pair of 2’s, and he tried to fight.”
Frank, from Teaneck, N.J., replaced Byron Scott in January 2004 and began his career with a 13-game winning streak, the best coaching start in league history. His final losing streak is even longer, just shy of the 17-game skids by the 1988-89 Miami Heat and the 1999 Los Angeles Clippers.
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