The 76ers went into the season with high hopes then proceeded to play terrible basketball. Now, that 9-14 start has cost Maurice Cheeks his job.
On Saturday, after the team lost for the eighth time in 10 games Friday night in Cleveland, Cheeks was fired. He was in his fourth season as head coach. According to reports, Tony DiLeo, the team’s vice president and assistant general manger, will take over as interim coach.
A message left on Cheeks' cell phone was not returned.
The Sixers struggled through more than half of last season before adopting an uptempo style that saw them make a late surge into the playoffs.
In the offseason, they were considered by many to have made the biggest move when they signed free agent Elton Brand.
But in a way, that move may have led to this. Brand, who is coming off nearly a year off after Achilles surgery, has not fit in smoothly to the team’s running style. In fact, except for brief stretches of time, the Sixers have looked more like an inept, halfcourt team than the team that captured some attention last spring.
In three-plus years as coach, Cheeks compiled a record of 122-147. Before coming to the Sixers, he spend three-plus seasons as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, where his record was 162-139.
As a player, Cheeks spent 11 years with the Sixers and was a member of the 1983 championship team. After 15 years in the league he retired in 1993 as the league’s all-time steals leader and was fifth on the career assists list.