HOUSTON -- Don Chaney, the NBA Coach of the Year last season, was fired by the Houston Rockets Tuesday, one day after an overtime loss to the league's worst team.
He was replaced by Rudy Tomjanovich, the former All-Star forward who has spent the last nine seasons as an assistant coach with the Rockets.
Charlie Thomas, the club's chairman of the board, announced the dismissal in the wake of Houston's 124-122 overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Rockets blew a 24-point third-quarter lead.
'This is the worst regular season loss I have ever had,' Chaney said moments after the Monday night game.
The Rockets, who squandered a 10-point lead Saturday night in Dallas, are 27-27 this season.
Chaney, the 1990-91 NBA Coach of the Year, compiled a 164-134 record in his three-plus seasons with the Rockets.
Chaney, 47, has the best winning percentage in franchise history (. 561) and he is also the only Rockets' coach to have a .500 or better record and make the playoffs in each season. He was the first in league history to win NBA Coach of the Month honors in consecutive months, February and March of 1991.
Chaney played for the University of Houston from 1965-68 before spending one season in the ABA and 11 in the NBA. He played for the Boston Celtics from 1968-75, for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1976-77 and returned to Boston in December of 1977 and finished his career with the Celtics in 1980.
Chaney was also head coach of the Los AngelesClippers from 1985-87, and spent time as an assistant with the Clippers and Detroit Pistons.
Tomjanovich, 43, played 11 seasons for the Rockets and is one of two Houston players to have his number (45) retired. He retired after the 1980-81 season and became a Rockets coach in 1982.
Tomjanovich, a native of Hamtramck, Mich., scored 13,383 points and grabbed 6,198 rebounds during his NBA career. He was a five-time All- Star, and averaged a career-high 24.5 points in 1973-74. Tomjanovich has been associated with the Rockets for 22 of their 25 seasons.
