Mike D’Antoni resigned as coach of the New York Knicks on Wednesday with the NBA team mired in a six-game losing streak and star playmaker Carmelo Anthony struggling to fit into the overall scheme.
Knicks assistant coach Mike Woodson will take over the team immediately and to the end of the season, the team said.
Woodson, a former coach of the Atlanta Hawks, has the task of melding the talents of Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin.
D’Antoni went 121-167 with the Knicks since taking over in 2008 after five seasons guiding the Phoenix Suns. He coached Phoenix into the playoffs four times but only nudged New York into the post-season once during his tenure.
The Knicks entered a Wednesday home game against Portland at 18-24 and level with Milwaukee for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The move comes on the eve of the NBA trade deadline and after the Bucks made a five-player deal with Golden State to improve their chances in the final 24 games of the season.
Lin, whose parents are from Taiwan, became a global sensation by coming off the bench and leading the Knicks to seven triumphs in a row last month.
But since the return of Anthony from injury, the Knicks have struggled to find the same rhythm and have fallen seven games behind Atlantic division leader Philadelphia after dropping six games in a row.
Anthony prefers to work on his own to generate scoring chances rather than in the team system D’Antoni had stressed, the scheme that worked so well during Lin’s rise to stardom.
D’Antoni reportedly departed the Knicks because of disagreements over how to make the club a winner. His contract was set to expire at the end of the season but Anthony said he played no role in pushing out D’Antoni, calling talk of a rift “a bunch of nonsense”.
“I support Mike 100 per cent, regardless of what is going on as far as us losing basketball games,” Anthony said before the coach’s resignation.
“We all need each other right now and this is the best time to come together and stick with one another. It’s a little adversity. We’ve all been through it. We’ve got to overcome it. We have to stick together as a unit and leave all the BS outside.”