Via Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports…
“The Indiana Pacers fired coach Jim O’Brien on Sunday morning, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
O’Brien’s firing comes after the Pacers lost seven of their past eight games to drop to 10th place in the Eastern Conference. After a strong start to the season, the Pacers have faded in recent weeks and O’Brien’s abrasive and erratic coaching style became a greater issue within the organization. The front office wasn’t happy with how O’Brien had publicly chastised promising young center Roy Hibbert, despite the player’s earnest efforts to improve.
Assistant coach Frank Vogel will take over as interim coach for the remainder of the season, but multiple sources told Yahoo! Sports that former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown – once a Pacers assistant – will be a primary focus of the search to replace O’Brien on a long-term basis.
Brown was Rick Carlisle’s top assistant in Indiana from 2003-05 and sources said he has remained well-regarded by Pacers management.
Utah Jazz assistant coach Ty Corbin is also expected to be a strong candidate, sources said.
O’Brien was fired in a meeting with Pacers president Larry Bird on Sunday morning.
The Pacers hired O’Brien to replace Carlisle after the 2006-07 season. He leaves with a 121-169 record in three-plus seasons.”
Link.
No surprise here, it was just a matter of time. With fans calling for his head and the team’s recent struggles, I think we all knew he wouldn’t he around much longer. As excited as Pacer supporters certainly were to hear the news, they likely went right back into a deep depression after reading paragraph three… the part about the likely long-term replacement.
Have fun with that.
