The Toronto Raptors have fired coach Dwane Casey after the team won a franchise-record 59 regular-season games but was swept by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs for the second year in a row.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report the news.
Casey, whose teams made the playoffs in the past five of his seven seasons in Toronto, was voted Coach of the Year by his fellow NBA coaches this week. He is a front-runner to win the Coach of the Year Award, voted by the media that the NBA will announce at its June 25 awards show.
Incidentally, Celtics coach Brad Stevens did not receive a single vote for Coach of the Year from his fellow coaches.
Toronto President Masai Ujiri on Friday said the move was a "very difficult but necessary step."
Boston Celtics
"As a team, we are constantly trying to grow and improve in order to get to the next level," Ujiri said in the statement released by the team.
Ujiri thanked Casey for what he has done for the organization, saying Casey was "instrumental in creating the identity and culture of who we are as a team."
Associated Press report included in this story.
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