From Deseret News archives:
Magic prescription: Fire Doc
Only a few hours after Rivers talked to reporters about how management has stuck behind him, he was fired and replaced by assistant coach Johnny Davis.
"We need to start making some progress," Orlando's chief operating officer, John Weisbrod, said before the team's workout Tuesday in Phoenix. "We don't have a team that should be lapping the field or leading the East, but we certainly feel we have a group that is better than 1-10, and we need to get more out of our guys."
General manager John Gabriel delivered the news late Monday night in a meeting at the team's hotel in Salt Lake City following the Magic's 90-88 loss to Utah. Assistant coach Dave Wohl also was fired.
Rivers flew home to Florida, and the Magic traveled to Phoenix, where they will play the Suns on Thursday.
"It is part of sports," Rivers said. "I thought I had a good run here. Things just didn't work out in the end. Maybe the players need to hear another voice."
The Magic won its season opener but then lost 10 straight games, the NBA's worst record this season.
Much of their troubles stem from the loss of Grant Hill, limited to just 47 games in three-plus seasons because of a stress fracture in his left ankle. His huge contract is also a massive impediment to Orlando's salary cap situation. The team signed him and Tracy McGrady in 2000, believing the tandem could lead the Magic to the top of the East.
Davis, a former head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, was given a two-year contract. He had been a Magic assistant since Rivers became coach.
"It's a bittersweet change because he is a friend of mine," Davis said in a statement, "and certainly I didn't want to see a situation where he wasn't successful here."
Rivers was named NBA coach of the year in his first season after directing a team that had four non-drafted starters to a 42-42 record. The Magic reached the playoffs in the last three of Rivers' four seasons but were knocked out in the first round.
"I have no ax to grind," Rivers said. "I thought the management and team were both great. I couldn't ask for anything more."
Orlando has the third-youngest team in the NBA, and Weisbrod felt Davis would be better at teaching the younger players.
"We became convinced that with his temperament, his rapport with the players, his ability to teach people and work with young players, that he was the type of person that was right for our mix," Weisbrod said. "We want to be in a position to build forward boldly and make some progress."
