The Philadelphia 76ers have fired coach Brett Brown, a day after his seventh season ended in a first-round post-season sweep.
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The 76ers were 43-30 this season and had woefully underachieved in a year when they were expected to be serious contenders in the Eastern Conference.
Instead, they weren't close, and the move was expected after the sixth-seeded Sixers were swept by the Boston Celtics.
"I have a tremendous level of respect for Brett both personally and professionally and appreciate all he's done for the 76ers organisation and the City of Philadelphia," general manager Elton Brand said in a statement.
"He did many positive things during his time here, developing young talent and helping position our team for three straight post-season appearances. Unfortunately, we fell well short of our goals this year and I believe it is best to go in a new direction."
Brown finished 221-344, though his record was never going to be pretty because the Sixers weren't trying to win when he was hired.
Brown was tasked with leading the Sixers through a rebuild dubbed "The Process," where management stripped the roster of serious NBA talent to lose games and increase their odds at better draft picks.
The philosophy paid off when they drafted Joel Embiid and Australian Ben Simmons, who would both become All-Stars and lead the Sixers to two straight trips to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
But Simmons missed the postseason with a knee injury and neither Embiid nor the players brought in in recent years could provide enough scoring in clutch situations against Boston.
The 76ers said they would begin a search for a new coach immediately.
"In 2013, I was employed to lead one of the most dramatic rebuilds in professional sports history. In the past seven years, our players and coaches have evolved and grown, and I have deep appreciation for the 102 players I have coached," Brown said.
The Sixers believed they were ready to contend for their first championship in 37 years and Brand spent $A251 million to re-sign Tobias Harris and nearly $A140 million to sign free agent Al Horford away from Boston.
Instead, the Sixers had only snippets of consistent success and Brown paid the price, the longtime San Antonio Spurs assistant coach now out of a job on a contract that runs through the 2021-2022 season.
The Sixers' support started to wean at the end of last season as team owner Josh Harris for the first time put public pressure on Brown, who is also the Australian men's team coach, to at least reach the East final.
And at an impromptu news conference before the start of the playoffs, Harris refused to say if Brown would return and offered only a lukewarm endorsement of his performance.
Another lukewarm endorsement of Brown came Sunday from guard Josh Richardson after the Sixers' elimination.
"He's a good guy, he's a good man, he means well. I just think going forward he's got to ask more accountability," Richardson said. "I don't think there was much accountability this season and I think that was part of our problem."
Australian Associated Press