The Atlanta Hawks have decided to fire coach Terry Stotts following a season in which the Hawks tied for the league's fourth worst record at 28-54, ESPN's David Aldridge has learned.

According to a report by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Stotts has been made aware of this decision on Thursday night and a press conference has been called for Friday to announce the change.

This had been Stotts' first full season as the Atlanta head coach. He took over for fired Lon Kruger in December of 2002, and compiled a 24-31 win-loss record. However, after raised expectations and a couple of mid season trades to clear cap room involving Rasheed Wallace, Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Theo Ratliff, the team stumbled to a 28-54 record.

Terry Stotts was a long time assistant under George Karl in both Seattle and Milwaukee. He had been the Eastern Conference's longest tenured coach with his current team.