The Detroit Pistons fired coach Rick Carlisle and will hire Larry Brown, a source within the league said Saturday.

Carlisle was fired late Friday and the Pistons will replace him with Brown on Monday, the source told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Carlisle led the Pistons to a 50-win season and a spot in the conference finals for the first time since 1991. Detroit's playoff run ended May 24, when the Pistons were swept by the New Jersey Nets in the Eastern Conference finals.

Brown resigned as coach of the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday after six seasons. The 76ers released the Hall of Famer from a contractual clause that prohibited him from coaching another NBA team if he left Philadelphia prematurely.

Nets assistant coach Eddie Jordan has been granted permission to interview with another team about its head coaching position sometime after the NBA Finals. Nets director of scouting Ed Stefanski may be on his way to Washington to take a job as Wizards general manager.

Most intriguingly, Stefanski may get hired in Washington and bring Jordan with him.
   
That was the fallout from a busy day in an NBA rumor mill that really got churning once the Wizards finally made it official and fired head coach Doug Collins.

Nets president Rod Thorn confirmed he had given approval to another NBA team to talk to Jordan about its head coaching vacancy, but Thorn would not say which team.

"We gave permission to talk at an appropriate time, yes," Thorn said. "I'm not going to say which team. There are nine possibilities."

There are nine teams with vacancies, but the Raptors, Hawks, Sixers and Clippers seem among the more likely candidates.

Tubby Smith is staying as Kentucky basketball coach.

UK issued that non-news bulletin yesterday despite Smith seemingly settling his future six weeks ago by signing a new gold-plated contract to coach the Wildcats.

A story in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer prompted UK and Smith to reaffirm their commitment. The newspaper story quoted sources as saying Smith met with Billy King, the president of the Philadelphia 76ers, on Thursday to discuss that team's head coaching job. Smith was so close to taking the job that an announcement could come on Friday, the Inquirer story said.

An announcement did come yesterday morning. But it came on UK stationery.

"I have no interest in coaching the 76ers," Smith said. "I am very happy as the coach at Kentucky and extremely pleased with my new contract I signed last month. I have no plans to leave the Wildcats, and in fact, I'm very excited about our prospects for next season."

Whether by design or by chance, the statement did not mention if Smith discussed the Sixers' job with King, long an unabashed admirer of the UK coach.

For an organization that has all but taken a blood oath to remain silent about the direction of its search for a coach, the cacophony of noise swirling about the 76ers is deafening.

The Sixers, searching intently for the successor to Larry Brown, are slowly discovering there are fewer secrets in the NBA than they thought. They also are quietly discovering that sometimes a trail of bread crumbs for reporters and an occasional revelation, even if slightly misdirected, can be a far better option.

While Brown sorts through two fistfuls of potential opportunities, the most enticing one could emerge with a winning team that currently has a coach. If the coach in question is released in a negotiated settlement, Brown could find himself not only with another huge payday, but a built-in chance to win.

Billy King's job is different. For a basketball constituency that desperately wants a winner in the First Union Center, the newly anointed Sixers president cannot worry about any hand-wringing over an inability to acquire permission to speak with favorite son Maurice Cheeks, the Portland coach, or the realization that neither former New York coach Jeff Gundy nor Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, by mutual agreement, was the right one at the right time.

Another day has passed and the 76ers are still looking for a coach.

One with the acumen to handle a veteran squad, with the conviction to coach Allen Iverson, and with the humility to understand that complete control of basketball operations is held firmly by newly crowned team president Billy King.

And the Sixers are willing to wait, possibly until after the June 26 NBA draft, to get the right person.

That person was supposed to be University of Kentucky coach Tubby Smith. NBA sources confirmed again yesterday that Smith had met with King on Thursday. But Smith, who signed an eight-year, $20.25 million extension with the Wildcats weeks earlier, said he was not interested in the job.

"I have no interest in coaching the 76ers. I am very happy as the coach at Kentucky and extremely pleased with my new contract I signed last month," Smith said in a statement released by Kentucky's athletic department. "I have no plans to leave the Wildcats and, in fact, I'm very excited about our prospects for next season."

Fifty victories. A spot in the Eastern Conference finals. It just was not enough to earn a third season in Detroit.

Rick Carlisle has been fired as head coach of the Pistons after two seasons, he told ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher late Friday.

Carlisle's Pistons went 50-32 this season, the best record in the East. Detroit advanced to the conference finals before getting swept by the Nets.

Early Saturday morning, a Pistons' official denied to ESPN Radio that Carlisle has been fired.

Carlisle's agent said Carlisle intends to meet with the media on Saturday. Carlisle said he doesn't know if he wants to pursue another coaching position or return to television.

Billy King, the new president of the 76ers, was out of the office yesterday, and several NBA sources said he spent the day with Kentucky coach Tubby Smith.

The sources said King was trying to convince him to take the Sixers' head coaching job a day after Smith referred to that job as a "headache."

After hours of negotiating, it appeared that a deal to make Smith the next Sixers coach was close to getting done.

Smith, who won a national title with Kentucky in 1998 and was an assistant coach on the Olympic team, has been friendly with King for years.

An announcement could come as early as today.

Jeff Van Gundy, who has had four teams inquire about filling their coaching vacancy this month, turned down No. 2 yesterday.

Van Gundy and Philadelphia president Billy King spoke for one hour yesterday, which was all the time the two needed to conclude that it wasn't a good match.

"We mutually agreed it wasn't the right fit," said Van Gundy, still a top candidate for the Cleveland and Houston coaching positions. "Really, as we talked it through, that's what it came down to."

The former Knicks coach would not expound on that remark, but a Van Gundy confidant suggested that he felt as though the Sixers needed a different kind of coach than Larry Brown, who Van Gundy is often compared with.

"Jeff thinks that you can't follow a coach that's similar," his friend said.

"He thinks that if he followed Pat Riley directly in New York, he wouldn't have been as successful -- he needed (Don Nelson) in the middle, just to give the players a different voice. Same with Philly."

This is what Jeff Van Gundy knew after an hour on the telephone Wednesday night with newly anointed 76ers president Billy King:

For whatever reasons, this was the wrong time, the wrong team for a return to coaching.

The Sixers had received permission from New York to speak with the Knicks' former coach earlier that day, but if there were any courting to be done, it was over before it started.

Add 'none' to list of teams he might coach next season  

It's never a good sign when your No. 1 coaching candidate says he's not sure he even wants to coach next year.

Former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy dropped that bombshell last night before Game 6 of the Western Conference finals game in Dallas.

The Cavaliers have reportedly completed two rounds of interviews with both Van Gundy and ex-Hornets coach Paul Silas. The next logical step would be for the Cavaliers to offer the position to one of them.

Van Gundy said last night he hasn't been offered the Cleveland job.

In fact, he's not sure he wants to coach at all.
"I would say it's 50-50 (whether I coach next year)," Van Gundy said.

If that's the case, then perhaps Silas might be the man.

Van Gundy spoke to Sixers general manager Billy King yesterday and they mutually agreed that he's not a candidate for the vacant Philadelphia job. It's not out of the question for the Sixers to attempt to interview Silas.
One source with knowledge of the coaching situation said Van Gundy has reportedly asked for $7 million a season to coach the Cavaliers. Cavaliers owner Gordon Gund, who has confided in associates that he wants Van Gundy to be his next coach, might be forced to pay such an exorbitant figure.

The Cavaliers have been selling tickets at an alarming rate since earning the No. 1 pick in the draft. Because of that, Gund might be able to afford it.

Van Gundy, 41, also wants some say in personnel matters, the source said.

Silas, 59, might not come cheaply either. He reportedly has asked the Cavaliers for $5 million a season.