WASHINGTON -- Well, Michael Jordan never promised he would be tactful.
From the day he pledged to put his "imprints and footprints all over" the Washington Wizards, Jordan gave coach Gar Heard the cold shoulder. Jordan spent virtually no one-on-one time with the coach while negotiating in secret to replace him with an old buddy.Jordan was not around when he fired Heard on Saturday night. He was in Atlanta for the Super Bowl, while Heard and his players were feeling good about a gritty victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
General manager Wes Unseld was left to deliver the news, informing Heard that Jordan's golfing pal, Rod Higgins, who has no head coaching experience and is an assistant with a Golden State Warriors team that is almost as bad as the Wizards, will take over officially on Monday.
"The timing was kind of funny," forward Aaron Williams said. "Everybody's spirits were up after a good win that we really needed."
Heard saw the writing on the wall shortly after Jordan was made part-owner and president of basketball operations Jan. 19. Jordan met individually with several veterans and at length with Unseld, but never with Heard.
"You never have a chance to show what you can do," Heard said. "Unfortunately, that's the nature of the business. I think they had their mind made up when he got here. I never got an opportunity to talk to him. When you come in you want to bring your own people."
Other than a 9-44 stint as interim head of the Dallas Mavericks in 1993, the Wizards were Heard's first chance to be a head coach, a reward for toiling 12 years as an assistant with Dallas, Indiana, Philadelphia and Detroit. He was given a three-year, $3.6 million contract on June 19, 1999.
But his old-school style did not suit a team entrenched in its ways. Heard clashed with Rod Strickland and Juwan Howard, and he lay some of the blame on the players for the Wizards' 14-30 record.
"As a coach, I know what to do," Heard said. "The point is, are they willing to do it? You have to work. You have to come to work every day. You can't not come to practice and play.
"Most of the guys worked hard, but I'm sure you have some guys who think they're not getting fair treatment. As coach, you're the first one to go, the easiest one to remove."
Unseld also said the "onus is always on the players" and refused to elaborate on Heard's shortcomings when the firing was announced Saturday night. Unseld did not return calls Sunday, and Jordan was not available for comment.
Higgins will take over the job on his 40th birthday Monday. He has been an assistant with the Warriors for six seasons, following a 13-year playing career with Chicago, Seattle, San Antonio, New Jersey, Sacramento, Cleveland and Golden State. He played with Jordan in Chicago during Jordan's rookie season in 1984-85 season and again at the end of the 1985-86 season.2/3
He will take charge of a team that hasn't won consecutive games in more than a month, has not won a playoff game in 12 years and has underachieving veterans such as Strickland, Howard and Mitch Richmond whose high salaries make them almost untradeable. Barring a trade, the Wizards are years away from having significant salary cap room to sign a star player.
"It's been tough around here," Strickland said. "The atmosphere hasn't been good. It's been a lot of negativity, so put it on the players, put it on the coaches, put it on everybody -- things weren't right, and it wasn't fun."
Also fired were assistants Butch Beard and Mike Bratz. Assistant Tree Rollins will be retained.