The Cleveland Cavaliers decided to fire head coach Mike Brown for the second time in the last four years after the team failed to make it into the playoffs again this season.
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert announced the decision on Monday, saying the he felt they should go into a different direction after falling short of their expectations this year.
Curiously, Gilbert re-hired Brown last summer, and said that he made a big mistake in firing him in 2010. The owner had high hopes for his team heading into the season, but the Cavaliers had another disappointing season, finishing with a 33-49 record.
"This is a very tough business," Gilbert said in a statement. "It pains all of us here that we needed to make the difficult decision of releasing Mike Brown. Mike worked hard over this last season to move our team in the right direction. Although, there was some progress from our finish over the few prior seasons, we believe we need to head in a different direction."
Brown, who was the only coach to lead the Cavaliers into an NBA Finals stint in franchise history, had four years left in the $20-million deal he signed last summer.
Aside from firing Brown, Gilbert also named David Griffin as general manager, removing the interim tag attached to Griffin since he took over the post after the team fired Chris Grant in February.
Gilbert said that the team interviewed several candidates for the position, but they felt Griffin is the best person to take the job, and help the team end their playoff drought soon.
"We interviewed several strong candidates for the GM position including Griff. We chose David as our GM because we believe he is the best person to lead our franchise at this critical time and into the future," Gilbert said in a statement. "David brings over two decades of experience. He knows the ins and outs of this league as well as anyone and is also an outstanding talent evaluator."
Gilbert added that Griffin's first official order of duty is to lead the search for the team's new coach. It is unknown at this point whether or not Griffin had a role in Brown's surprising exit.
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