The Brooklyn Nets have fired head coach Jacque Vaughn after a 21-33 start to the 2023-24 NBA season. The team is currently 11th in the Eastern Conference and has gone 6-15 since the start of the new year.

Vaughn spent four years as a Nets assistant coach from 2016 to 2020 before becoming the team’s interim head coach after the firing of Kenny Atkinson. He was then moved back to an assistant coach position before becoming the team’s head coach in 2022, which he held until Monday. While Vaughn was with Brooklyn he saw the arrival and departure of stars such as James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. In his time with the Nets, the team made the playoffs every year but only reached the second round once, losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games in 2021. The last game Vaughn coached for the Nets was a 136-86 blowout loss to the Boston Celtics before All-Star Weekend.

“This was an incredibly difficult decision, but one we feel is in the best interest of the team going forward,” Nets general manager Sean Marks said. “We thank Jacque for all he has done for the Nets and the borough of Brooklyn, and wish him, Laura and their family nothing but the best in the future.”

After seeing Irving leave for Dallas and Durant for Phoenix, the Nets are in an unknown phase, without their superstars but perhaps not a bad enough record to tank for a better draft pick. With talented players in Mikal Bridges, Cam Thomas and Nic Claxton the team did get out to a strong 13-10 record to start the season. Unfortunately, they’ve gone 8-23 in the games since then and are 21st in the league in scoring at 113.4 points per game, two factors ultimately leading to Vaughn’s firing.

Despite the team only one position shy of the NBA Play-In tournament, the parting of Vaughn from the Nets is yet another example of high expectations by NBA front offices. Most notably, the Bucks fired head coach Adrian Griffin in his first year despite a 30-13 record and second place in the East. Vaughn’s overall head coaching record with the Nets was 71-68 over the course of three total seasons.

In Vaughn’s place, Kevin Ollie will take over as the team’s interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Ollie was an NBA veteran for 13 years and won an NCAA National Championship in 2014 as head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies. He was also the head coach of the Overtime Elite team before joining Brooklyn’s coaching staff last season.

The Nets currently have 28 games remaining on their schedule and are two and a half games behind the Atlanta Hawks in the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference.

Former University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Kevin Ollie is threatening to sue the college, alleging defamation and invasion of privacy following UConn’s disclosure of transcripts pertaining to an NCAA inquiry.

Ex-basketball coach kevin ollie threatens to sue UConn

A letter shared by ESPN reveals Ollie and his lawyers are demanding that the university retract the transcripts of the probe, which were recently leaked to the press. These documents reportedly included a secondhand allegation by a man who previously worked as an associate head coach for the Huskies that Ollie paid the mother of a former recruit $30,000 in return for a promise that the woman’s son would commit to the program.

News outlets cited the Freedom of Information Act to ask for the NCAA transcripts.

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Ollie’s attorneys allege the mother of the aforementioned recruit denied ever having been paid in an interview with the NCAA. UConn officially fired Ollie for “just cause” on June 19. The coach claims to be owed $10 million as part of his contract. The NCAA’s probe into the Huskies men’s basketball program during Ollie’s tenure remains ongoing.

“The defamatory allegation that Coach Ollie paid $30,000 to the mother of a student athlete published widely by the University of Connecticut constitutes not only defamation but also gives rise to the tort of false light invasion of privacy,” Ollie’s lawyers wrote in a letter.

Ollie had been the Huskies’ head coach since 2012, two years after he first joined them as an assistant. He led the team to an NCAA championship in 2014 and signed a new five-year deal with the program shortly after that.

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This is not the first time in recent years that the parent of a college basketball player or recruit has been probed for allegedly receiving payments or other services in exchange for their child’s commitment to a school. In February, the FBI began investigating Michigan State’s Miles Bridges and his mother following claims that they received special benefits from an associate of a former NBA agent and his sports agency. Expense reports revealed the connection.

Dozens of other NCAA basketball programs and sponsorship companies like Adidas have been investigated over the last year for illegal recruitment tactics that include bribery.