NEW YORK — Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni says Lawrence Frank was “doomed from the start” because of the Nets’ multitude of injuries.
“Lawrence was kind of doomed from the start in the sense of everyone got hurt,” D’Antoni said before the Knicks played Orlando Sunday night at MSG. “Thats a tough part of the business.”
The Nets fired Frank Sunday after losing their first 16 games of the NBA season.
Assistant Tom Barrise, a former head coach at Ramapo College, is set to coach the team tonight against the Lakers in Los Angeles, when the Nets could match the NBA record for the worst start ever at 0-17.
No permanent replacement has been named but Nets GM Kiki Vandeweghe has been rumored as a temporary replacement.
“I want to thank Lawrence for his more than a decade of service to the Nets, first as an assistant coach and then as the head coach for the past six and a half seasons,” Nets President Rod Thorn said in a statement. “Lawrence always approached every day with a passion for his craft that was infectious, and his dedication to the game as well as his work ethic are to be both admired and appreciated.”
Frank compiled a career record of 225-241 and led the team to the playoffs from 2004-07.
The Nets in recent years traded Vince Carter, Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson in an effort to cut payroll. This year they routinely dressed eight players for games and only recently welcomed back injured point guard Devin Harris.
Still, D’Antoni, whose own team is 3-13, said coaches should be judged on their records above all.
“Wins, that’s all that counts,” he said. “It doesn’t matter…You have to win, you have to win…He’s smart if he wins and not too smart if he doesn’t. That’s just the way it is.”
Denver coach George Karl recently suggested that D’Antoni should be promoted to a senior vice president position and that someone else should be installed as Knicks coach this season to absorb all the losses the team will take.
“Then you have some other schmuck take the losses?” D’Antoni said with a laugh. “I didn’t understand that one. It’s like, ‘Yeah, get another coach in there, let him lose.'”
He added: “I appreciate what he said. It doesn’t change anything. I’m fine with everything. I just want to win right now.”
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D’Antoni said Knicks center Eddy Curry is “day-to-day” because of soreness in his left knee that caused him to miss the last two games of the West Coast swing. Curry played just 5:54 in his last game against the Lakers Nov. 24 and will not dress for the third straight game vs. Orlando.
“I think he just tweaked it,” D’Antoni said of Curry. “They said nothing is structurally wrong. It’s just as soon as the fluid goes away, he’ll be able to play. It should be day-to-day I would think.”
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