Cotton Fitzsimmons is trading in his headset for another chance to coach the Phoenix Suns, proving he's not afraid of a challenge.
The Suns (14-19) play the Orlando Magic (27-9) tonight in Fitzsimmons' first game as coach since he stepped down for his protege, Paul Westphal, on July 1, 1992. An Orlando win would be the Suns' sixth consecutive home loss, an unprecedented slump by a franchise that began play in 1968.Then the Suns play nine of their next 10 on the road.
"There are no quick fixes in this business," Fitzsimmons said Tuesday. "This will be a first for me, the fact that I am taking over a team during a season. I have never done that. It is not a first for me to take over a team that has a losing record; I have done that every time I have taken a job."
Team president Jerry Colangelo called a news conference to announce Westphal's dismissal and the move of Fitzsimmons from the front office, where he had been senior executive vice president and the club's broadcast color commentator.
Colangelo said he had no choice following an 89-74 loss to Cleveland on Sunday night in the America West Arena.
The team, playing without injured stars Charles Barkley, Danny Manning, John Williams and Kevin Johnson, shot 38 percent, matched the franchise one-game low of 28 field goals set in 1990 and scored the fewest points since the record low of 68 at Kansas City in March 1981.
But Colangelo said the decision had been forming since the 1994 playoffs, when the Suns took a 2-0 second-round lead in Houston, but still lost to the Rockets in seven games. The Rockets also beat the Suns in seven games last spring.
"This is something that has been coming for quite some time," Colangelo said. "I hesitated and I waited, thinking time would take care of some things, that healing would take place, but it just wasn't in the cards."
Colangelo said Barkley, Johnson, Williams and Manning, who tore up his left knee last Feb. 6, all should be available by early February.
Westphal, 45, was given a two-year, $3 million contract extension last spring, with a termination package. Colangelo said Westphal would be paid.
Fitzsimmons, who has an 805-745 record in 19 NBA seasons with five teams, including two previous stints with the Suns, trained Westphal as his assistant for four seasons. But he sounded excited about getting back to the bench.
"Jerry took my sign off my desk," Fitzsimmons quipped. "It said `Vice President of Nothing.' "
At 64, Fitzsimmons becomes the second-oldest coach in the league, a month younger than Dick Motta.
Player reaction was mixed. A.C. Green spoke of his respect for Westphal.
"His life is successful with or without basketball," Green said. "I'm sure this is just temporary for him."
Barkley said he was dejected.
"This is the ugly side of the business," he said. "Ninety percent of the business is nice, but this is the ugly 10 percent."