RealGM.com's Hawks Affiliate Jason Walker reports that Lon Kruger will be fired by the Hawks tonight at a 8:00PM EST press conference. The press conference will follow a 6:00PM EST practice session.

Walker reports that assistant coach Terry Stotts will be named the interm head coach.

"We just fell back into a poor effort," general manager Pete Babcock said in announcing the changes Thursday night. "I didn't want to make a change on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and I tried to convince myself it still could work. But we're not maximizing our potential, and we needed to do this."

"I think Lon is a great coach," Babcock added. "It didn't work out here. There were reasons, and Lon shouldn't take the blame for what happened. He has great qualities. We thought it would work and that he would be the head coach for a long time to come."

Kruger was joined on the unemployment line by assistant coach Gar Heard.  With talent such as Glenn Robinson, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Jason Terry and Theo Ratliff at his disposal it is not a stretch to say that the Hawks have thus far underachieved this season, one which Kruger had previously promised a playoff appearance.

Jeffrey Denberg of the Atlanta Journal Constitution writes that although Kruger was not present for the news conference, he did note that the NBA is vastly different from the platform of college where he was previously successful with Kansas State, Florida and Illinois.

"At this level it's a players' game, and you don't have the opportunity to affect things as much as you would in college," Kruger said.

"In college the coach can have a great effect on the outcome of games. But the truth is, at the pro level, the better players you have, the better you will be. You can close that gap a little more in college . . . But at the pro level the players really determine things more."

"While this decision is bittersweet, and while I would have liked for it to occur under different circumstances, this is an opportunity I'm very excited about," said Stotts on his new position.