Derek Fisher Fired As Knicks Coach

Derek Fisher's reign of error ended with the second-worst winning percentage in Knicks history.

The coach was canned Monday in an announcement made by the Knicks president Phil Jackson, during a stretch of nine losses in 10 games that left the squad 23-31 and in 12th in the Eastern Conference.

Kurt Rambis took over as interim coach, the team announced, and there are obvious and willing candidates for a longterm replacement: Brian Shaw and Luke Walton have ties to Jackson and the triangle having played under him in L.A.; Tom Thibodeau, a former Knick assistant, is unemployed after being fired by Chicago after last season; Mark Jackson and Scott Brooks are also available.

Jackson said he hasn't thought "for one second" about coaching the Knicks, adding that he is not physically up to the task.

Nobody in the 70-year history of the Knicks coached as many games as Fisher with a worse winning percentage (40-96, 29 percent). Larry Brown's 28 percent is just below Fisher’s, but he only lasted a season.

Fisher was hired before last season on a five-year deal worth $25 million, although incentives and options in the contract will make it less valuable in the payout. He lost a franchise-high 65 games in his first season and, just before his sophomore campaign, was involved in a reputation-damaging fight with Matt Barnes over his girlfriend. Fisher was not only across the country in the middle of training camp when he was involved in the fight, but he also missed practice two days later and blamed it on a faulty plane.

"No one’s happy about how that happend, what came out of that," Jackson said Monday. "It was embarrassing for us."

The story followed Fisher until Barnes’ appearance at the Garden last week, an embarrassing situation that would make it tough to discipline players for off-the-court indiscretions (there were signs of that occurring with the Knicks, too, when Derrick Williams was robbed of jewelry in his home after a night out and Cleanthony Early was shot at 4 a.m. in front of a strip club).

In recent weeks, Fisher’s comments to the media became even more condescending and perplexing, like when he alienated a potential free agent target by insulting Rajon Rondo and answered, “We don’t run plays,” when asked if Kristaps Porzingis is ready to have his number called down the stretch.

Fisher also declared he wouldn’t be disappointed if the Knicks failed to make the playoffs, a statement that couldn’t have been received well by an owner who shelled out over $100 million in player contracts over the summer.

The stats tell an ugly story as well: New York has been outscored in fourth quarters by 28 of the NBA’s 29 other teams. It is also dead last in fastbreak points, meaning Fisher’s plan of playing faster and scoring easy buckets in transition had fallen flat.

Rambis, 57, another Jackson disciple, has a career 56-145 record as a head coach, having been fired by the Timberwolves after a poor two-year stint that ended in 2011.

“I have big confidence in (Kurt Rambis’) ability to coach this team," Jackson said, adding that Rambis will coach the team for the rest of the season.

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