Feb. 08--Derek Fisher has been fired as the head coach of the New York Knicks, the team announced Monday.
Fisher won five NBA championships as a player with the Lakers. New York Knicks president Phil Jackson was Fisher's coach for all five of those titles.
The Knicks lost their fifth straight game Sunday, 101-96 to the Nuggets, and have lost nine of their last 10 games.
"It's time for us to make a change, turn this team around and move forward and get some wins and keep going down the road we had started here at the beginning of the year," Jackson said at the team's practice facility Monday.
Fisher took the job during the summer of 2014, not long after his playing career ended. He went 40-96 as coach.
Another former Laker, Kurt Rambis, will take over as the Knicks' interim head coach. Rambis won four championships in L.A. during the 1980s as a player and spent several seasons as an assistant coach for the Lakers and one (1999) as head coach.
The New York Knicks fired Fisher midway through his second season.
The Knicks made the decision Monday. They have fallen to 23-31, well back in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Fisher's firing was first reported by ESPN.
