Grizzlies Fire Coach Hill

Feeling the Vancouver Grizzlies were better than their 4-18 record, president and general manager Stu Jackson said Thursday he was left with no choice but to fire coach Brian Hill.

Lionel Hollins, the only remaining member of the coaching staff from the Grizzlies inaugural 1995 season, will take over on an interim basis the rest of the season.

Hollins, 46, takes over a club that has lost four straight games, has won only one of its last 15 and following last Monday's loss to the Los Angeles Clippers is back at the bottom of the NBA Western Conference standings.

"I believe this team has the talent level to play better and the capability to compete harder and I felt that a coaching change was necessary in order to facilitate improvement," Jackson said at a news conference at the team's suburban Vancouver training facility.

The coaching change was the second this season in the NBA as Danny Ainge resigned at Phoenix on Monday and was replaced by assistant Scott Skiles.

After making seven offseason changes to a team that finished with an NBA-low 8-42 record last year, Jackson felt the Grizzlies were not responding.

"This is a relatively new group for all intents and purposes and it's my belief that (the chemistry) is there and it needs to be unleashed and unlocked. And we hope that by changing a small piece that we can at least make our way to accomplishing that," said Jackson, who called this the Grizzlies most experienced and talented team in the club's five-year history.

Jackson, who is in the final year of his contract, said he considered making the move last month but wanted to give Hill and the team an opportunity to turn things around.

"It didn't seem like it was going to go that way," Jackson said. "Fall guy's really the wrong term. We're in a really difficult business and decisions like these are part of our business. They're never easy but they have to be made. You can't rip down the whole house."

With the Grizzlies sale to St. Louis businessman Bill Laurie still in limbo, Jackson said he sought and received approval to make the coaching change from Orca Bay officials, the team's current owners.

Hill, unavailable for comment, was informed of the firing Thursday morning, a day after the Grizzlies blew a three-point lead in the final minute and lost 109-106 to the Sacramento Kings.

Hill was in his third season with the Grizzlies, hired after he was let go in the middle of 1996-97 season by the Orlando Magic, who he led to the NBA Finals in 1995.

Hill had a 31-123 record with Vancouver, dropping his career mark to 222-227. Hill took over in Vancouver for Jackson, who served as interim coach after h dismissed Brian Winters in January 1997.

Although disappointed in Hill's dismissal, some of the players believed a change was necessary.

"He's not the one going out there and performing, we are," center Bryant Reeves said. "But at the same time you kind of see things slipping away and it was time for them to make the change."

Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the Grizzlies best player, said it's hard to just blame the coach.

"Everything, top to bottom, we're all in this together," Abdur-Rahim said. "It was a frustrating situation to be in, losing and to be going through this. Regardless of what a coach says or does, you've got to play."

The Grizzlies' offseason moves included an 11-player deal that sent disgruntled draft pick Steve Francis to the Houston Rockets.

In return, the Grizzlies got forwards Othella Harrington, Antoine Carr and guards Michael Dickerson and Brent Price. They also added veteran free agents Dennis Scott and Grant Long.

The start was hampered by a rash of injuries. Reeves is nursing a sore right knee, which forced him to miss seven straight games. Long (sprained left knee) has yet to play this season. Scott, who missed the first 14 games with a right hamstring pull, has been used only sparingly. Carr, Price and Felipe Lopez have missed games because of an assortment of injuries.

Hollins, the starting point guard with the 1977 NBA champion Portland Trail Blazers, thanked his predecessors for "laying the foundation" for this young team, adding that his first head coaching job comes with mixed emotions.

Hollins, who spent seven seasons as an assistant with Phoenix, said he wasn't planning to make many changes to the lineup.

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