{"id":19951,"date":"2017-11-28T19:36:29","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T19:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=19951"},"modified":"2017-11-28T19:36:29","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T19:36:29","slug":"memphis-grizzlies-sack-head-coach-david-fizdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/memphis-grizzlies-sack-head-coach-david-fizdale\/","title":{"rendered":"Memphis Grizzlies sack head coach David Fizdale"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>The Memphis Grizzlies fired coach David Fizdale on Monday, 24 hours after benching centre Marc Gasol for the fourth quarter of an eighth straight loss.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8220;After a thorough evaluation, I decided a change in course was necessary to move forward&#8221;, General Manager Chris Wallace said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the team&#8217;s record of 7-12 for this season, the move was a stunner for many. Lebron James and Dwayne Wade expressed their outcry on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I need some answers. Feels like my man was a fall guy<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LeBron James (@KingJames) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KingJames\/status\/935264219393658880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">27 november 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\">https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I need answers!!! WTF <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/z39oNRQok0\">https:\/\/t.co\/z39oNRQok0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 DWade (@DwyaneWade) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DwyaneWade\/status\/935263536372174848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">27 november 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\">https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gasol did not appreciate being sat for one whole quarter on Sunday: &#8220;It&#8217;s a first for me, trust me, and I don&#8217;t like it one bit,&#8221; Gasol told reporters after the game.\u00a0&#8220;If I&#8217;m not on the floor, I&#8217;m not valued,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Fizdale said the decision was a &#8220;risk&#8221; he had to take to try and win the game.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if Fizdale was fired because of Gasol, Wallace\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CAGrizBeat\/status\/935541073417506818\">\u00a0told Ronald Tillery of the\u00a0<em>Commercial-Appeal<\/em><\/a>: &#8220;There was tension between the two. This is a factor but its not the overriding factor&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith ripped the organisation for the move: &#8220;This is B.S. There is no excuse for this bogus firing&#8221;, he said in his show <em>First Take<\/em>. &#8220;Gasol was the only one who didn&#8217;t like this man&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The team reached the playoffs once and had a 50-51 record since Fizdale joined in May 2016.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Words<\/strong>: Omar Salvi | <strong>Subbing<\/strong>: Asllan Gecaj<\/p>\n<p>Picture: Wikipedia<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Memphis Grizzlies fired coach David Fizdale on Monday, 24 hours after benching centre Marc Gasol for the fourth quarter of an eighth straight loss. &#8220;After a thorough evaluation, I decided a change in course&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-sports","category-sport"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}