Your wishes have come true Pistons fans…
Details forthcoming! Michael Curry relieved of his duties.
Is it wrong that I just danced a jig?
UPDATE: Via MLive
“AUBURN HILLS – The never-ending carousel of coaches for the Detroit Pistons continues with the announcement that head coach Michael Curry has been fired.
“This was a difficult decision to make,” said Joe Dumars, Detroit’s president of basketball operations. “I want to thank Michael for his hard work and dedication to the organization. However, at this time, I have decided to make a change.”
UPDATE: Chris McCosky The Detroit News
“As for the next coach, Dumars could choose from a very short list: Doug Collins, former Bulls, Pistons and Wizards coach; Avery Johnson, former Mavericks coach; and John Kuester, former Pistons and current Cavaliers assistant coach.
“My family and I have an understanding and they know I want to do it (coach) one more time,” Collins said during a phone interview from his home in Arizona. “It has to be the right situation, but everybody knows I have a great affection for Detroit and the Pistons organization. They are committed to winning.”
Johnson, reached in Texas, had not heard from the Pistons and didn’t want to comment.
“I have not heard from them yet,” Johnson said. “It’s unfortunate what happened to Michael, but of course I am always in listening mode.” “
UPDATE: Pistons.com Keith Langlois – Who’s Next?
“The names that have floated to the top of the list are Avery Johnson, Doug Collins and John Kuester – and all make sense, if for varying reasons.
Johnson has the most recent track record of success in the NBA. His strength is implementing a structured system. There were whispers in Dallas that his style eventually became overbearing, but the type of discipline the Pistons seemed to lack last year was never an issue in Dallas under Johnson.
Collins is universally recognized as a brilliant basketball mind – his TNT telecasts are mini-clinics, in much the way Hubie Brown’s once were – who, like Johnson, also comes with a reputation for burning through relationships within a few seasons. Pistons fans will recall how Collins milked more wins than seemed possible out of his teams here in the ’90s. When he considered the Bulls job last summer, Collins reflected on those days and said he’d learned to pull back.
Kuester was a highly respected piece of Larry Brown’s staff here previously and was seen as the counterbalance to Brown’s mercurial mood swings with the mettle to voice dissent. He doesn’t have the head coaching track record of Collins and Johnson – though he did run his own college basketball programs before leaping to the NBA – but he was credited by Cleveland coach Mike Brown for making the Cavs a much more efficient offensive team the past two years while Brown focused on defense, his specialty.
That Curry’s firing comes on the eve of free agency is nothing but coincidental. As Dumars said upon announcing the decision this afternoon, it was not one easily reached. It’s fair to assume it’s something he’s considered since the season ended, based on the dysfunction he perceived as the Pistons finished the season in a tailspin and put up little resistance during Cleveland’s four-game sweep in the first round of the playoffs.
Changes come with no guarantees, of course. Acknowledging a problem doesn’t ensure its resolution. But it’s a necessary first step that many in positions of power avoid for the reflection it casts on them. As the tough decision to fire Michael Curry one season into the job proves, the path of least resistance is one Joe Dumars steadfastly avoids.”
June 30, 2009 at 3:11 pm
wow I had some Chinese food for lunch and the fortune cookie said….”you will have a happy and joyous day.” It was so right!
June 30, 2009 at 3:15 pm
LOL!!!
June 30, 2009 at 3:15 pm
yeah!!!! is about DAMM TIME. happiest day ever. hey natalie, you got to put the “No sign” on michael curry ASAP.
June 30, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I am a bit surprised. I didn’t realize Joe could still make a rational, justified decision.
Doug Collins or Bill Laimbeer, please.
June 30, 2009 at 3:55 pm
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
June 30, 2009 at 4:18 pm
the only difference is that he is a proven guy and you knowww for a fact that he does this when he is coaching man.. dont u watch the shock! lol
June 30, 2009 at 4:45 pm
If it is Doug Collins, Laimbeer should be an assistant so he can replace him next year. When Collins gets fired.
June 30, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Two years, Max
June 30, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Curry was a horrible player, why would he be a good coach? He couldnt even play defense, which was his only skill—moving your arms up and down real fast is not considered defense.
June 30, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Rip is better than any other shooting guard out there. Gordon cant play any defense or get assists. Rip does alot with very little. Trading him make me think of Billups all over again.
June 30, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Somebody cue a little MLK: “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we’re free at last.”
And a little paraphrase (for the ladies): “I have a dream that one day this Detroit nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that not all men’s suits are created equal (Michael “The Eyesore” Curry being a case in point. I think his suits are what really killed Chuck Daly) I have a dream that one day all Pistons will be coached by Bill Laimbeer!”
June 30, 2009 at 11:27 pm
defintely the suits! those pinstripes were just wrong
July 1, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Why isn’t Laimbeer on the list of options?