Trail Blazers fire Nate McMillan, release Oden

By Jon Krawczynski

Associated Press

Published: Thursday, March 15 2012 7:00 p.m. MDT

"The fight has to be within everybody and not just a few guys," Camby said after the game.

McMillan leaves with the third-most victories in Blazers history, behind Jack Ramsay and Rick Adelman. He is just the second coach in NBA history to improve a team by at least nine wins or more in three straight seasons and helped instill a new culture of accountability for a team that was plagued by malcontents like Darius Miles and Zach Randolph before he arrived.

The Blazers are the fourth team to change head coaches this season. Sacramento's Paul Westphal and Washington's Flip Saunders were fired and Mike D'Antoni resigned from New York.

McMillan and D'Antoni served as assistants on Team USA when the team took home the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

The 34-year-old Canales has been with the Blazers since 2004, starting as a video intern and being promoted to video coordinator before being named assistant coach in 2008.

AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney contributed to this report.

Get The Deseret News Everywhere

Subscribe

Mobile

RSS