Thunder fires successful coach Brooks

Scott Brooks did everything but win a championship.

It wasn't enough.

The Oklahoma City Thunder fired its coach on Wednesday, parting ways with a former NBA coach of the year who led the team to three conference finals in four years, only to falter this season as his players were hit hard by injuries.

Brooks coached the Thunder for seven seasons. Starting in 2010-11, he led the team to the Western Conference finals three out of four years, and the franchise reached the NBA Finals in 2012. Oklahoma City failed to make the playoffs this past season, as injuries limited the Thunder to a 45-37 record.

Brooks was 338-207 (.620) with the Thunder and was the 2009-10 NBA Coach of the Year. He said last week that he expected to be the coach next season.

Thunder General Manager Sam Presti said he knows he's taking a chance by removing such a successful coach — a year before Kevin Durant can become a free agent — but he felt the franchise could regress if a change wasn't made.

"The risk is not necessarily in moving forward, but I think sometimes, the risk can be in being fearful of moving forward," he said.

"Today was tough for me," he said. "While I support our team's decision 100 percent and look forward to the upcoming season and the future in OKC, Scotty was my coach and a friend for the past 7 seasons. We accomplished a lot together, and those times will never be taken away from us."

Brooks was criticized by many for failing to win a title with Durant and Russell Westbrook on his roster. Durant was last year's MVP and is a four-time scoring champion, while Westbrook was this year's All-Star MVP and scoring champion.

The Thunder stumbled to a 3-12 start this season as injuries to Durant and Westbrook took their toll.

Rajon Rondo is out in Dallas. Coach Rick Carlisle made that clear when asked whether he thought the free agent-to-be would wear a Mavericks uniform again.

"No, I don't," the coach said.

Game 3 is Friday night in Dallas, and the Mavericks also will be without Chandler Parsons. The forward is out for the rest of the playoffs with a right knee injury that will require surgery.

• A group headed by billionaire Antony Ressler agreed to purchase the Atlanta Hawks for $850 million. Former NBA star Grant Hill, Spanx founder Sara Blakely and her husband, entrepreneur Jesse Itzler, are part of the new ownership group. The Hawks went on the market after discovering an inflammatory e-mail written by co-owner Bruce Levenson in 2012, complaining about the racial makeup of the team's fans.

• Houston guard Jason Terry was fined $5,000 by the NBA for violating the league's anti-flopping rules during Game 2 of the Rockets' series against Dallas.