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Sports

Cavs dismiss Scott

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Cleveland, OH – The Cleveland Cavaliers have fired head coach Byron Scott after three seasons.

Scott guided Cleveland to a record of 64-166 in the first three years of the club's post-LeBron James era. He took over in July 2010, just before James decided to leave the Cavaliers for the Miami Heat as a free agent.

The Cavaliers were 24-58 this season, ending the campaign with a six-game losing streak, and finished last in the Central Division.

"I have tremendous respect for Byron professionally and a great deal of admiration for him personally," said Cavs general manager Chris Grant in a statement Thursday. "At the same time, it is critical for where we are as a team to ensure that we capitalize on every opportunity for development and success and we have fallen short of that on the court.

"I believe we needed to make this change in order to get to a better position to achieve our goals. I know I speak on behalf of the entire Cavs organization and the Cleveland community, in thanking Byron for his three years here and his hard work and many contributions on and off the court."

The Cavs were just 19-63 in Scott's first season, which included an NBA-record 26-game losing streak, then improved to 21-45 during the lockout-shortened 2011-12 campaign. This year's team took a small step backward.

"I want to thank Chris Grant, (owner) Dan Gilbert and the Cavaliers organization for the opportunity I had to coach this team the last three seasons," said Scott. "I am certainly proud of the progress that many of our players have made and greatly appreciate the dedication of my coaches and our team in our efforts to attain the success we all desired."

Scott played 14 seasons in the NBA and won three league titles with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was previously the head coach for the Nets and Hornets, and owns a career mark of 456-629. The Nets reached the NBA Finals under his guidance in the spring of 2002 and 2003.

"Byron is a class guy, both on and off the court, and I thank him for his three years of coaching the Cavaliers," said Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert. "I fully support the difficult move that was made today. Although we saw progress with young individual player development, we did not see the kind of progress we expected on the team level this past season."

Scott had one year remaining on his contract, reported to be worth about $4 million.