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Second choice Walker named Wizards coach after Higgins' deal fails
Posted: Monday January 31, 2000 07:30 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Darrell Walker is the new coach of the Washington Wizards after a confusing weekend in which a deal for Michael Jordan's first choice as coach fell apart. Team sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Walker's appointment will be announced at a news conference today. Walker, an NBA veteran who played four seasons in Washington from 1987-91, is a former coach of the Toronto Raptors. He became Toronto's coach in 1995 but quit in February 1998 because he didn't see a "light at the end of the tunnel." He most recently coached the Rockford Lightning of the CBA. Walker takes charge of a team that hasn't won consecutive games in more than a month and has not won a playoff game in 12 years. Gar Heard was fired as coach of Wizards after Saturday night's victory over Cleveland. The players were then told they could expect Rod Higgins, a Golden State assistant and former teammate of Jordan's, to be in charge when practice resumed today. Now it turns out Higgins will remain on the West Coast and Walker will get the job. The Washington Post and several broadcast outlets also reported that Walker is the new coach. The deal for Higgins reportedly fell apart because of a demand by Golden State for compensation. The Warriors confirmed that Jordan, part-owner of the Wizards, sought and received permission to talk to Higgins. Higgins did not attend the Golden State's practice Sunday, but coach Garry St. Jean said a deal had not been completed and Higgins was still employed by the Warriors. The Post reported the Warriors' asking price for Higgins was too steep for the Wizards' liking, calling for alteration of a 1994 trade between the two teams in a complicated maneuver that could affect the Wizards' first-round draft choice this year. Jordan told the Post that he wanted to make a coaching change to salvage something of the season. "That doesn't guarantee anything, but I feel we've got to change the attitude on this team," he said. "We've got to kick-start the team and that starts with the coach." In any case, Jordan's first significant move as an NBA executive has not gone smoothly. From the day he pledged to put his "imprints and footprints all over" the Wizards, Jordan gave Heard the cold shoulder. Jordan spent virtually no one-on-one time with the coach while negotiating in secret to replace him. Jordan was not around when he fired Heard on Saturday night. He was in Atlanta for the Super Bowl, while Heard and his players were feeling good about a gritty victory over Cleveland. General manager Wes Unseld was left to deliver the news. "The timing was kind of funny," forward Aaron Williams said. "Everybody's spirits were up after a good win that we really needed." Heard saw the writing on the wall shortly after Jordan was made part-owner and president of basketball operations Jan. 19. Jordan met individually with several veterans and at length with Unseld, but never with Heard. "You never have a chance to show what you can do," Heard said. "Unfortunately, that's the nature of the business. I think they had their mind made up when he got here. I never got an opportunity to talk to him. When you come in you want to bring your own people." Other than a 9-44 stint as interim head of the Dallas Mavericks in 1993, the Wizards were Heard's first chance to be a head coach, a reward for toiling 12 years as an assistant with Dallas, Indiana, Philadelphia and Detroit. He was given a three-year, $3.6 million contract on June 19, 1999. But his old-school style did not suit a team entrenched in its ways. Heard clashed with Rod Strickland and Juwan Howard, and he lay some of the blame on the players for the Wizards' 14-30 record. "As a coach, I know what to do," Heard said. "The point is, are they willing to do it?" Now Walker will try to extract what he can from such underachieving veterans as Strickland, Howard and Mitch Richmond, whose high salaries make them almost untradable. Barring a trade, the Wizards are years from having significant salary cap room to sign a star. "The atmosphere hasn't been good," Strickland said. "It's been a lot of negativity. So put it on the players, put it on the coaches, put it on everybody -- things weren't right, and it wasn't fun."
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