Hornets fire Byron Scott, Jeff Bower to assume head coaching duties

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Published: November 12, 2009

As confirmed by ESPN and NOLA.com. The Hornets will make a formal announcement at a press conference scheduled for 1 p.m. Central.

Updates will be posted here.


1:16 p.m. Update:

From ESPN’s Marc Stein on Twitter:

Our own @ricbucher reports that the Hornets are adding head coach to GM Jeff Bower’s duties and bringing in Tim Floyd to be top assistant

1:20 p.m. Update:

Bits and pieces from the Hornets press release:

NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Hornets announced today that they have relieved Byron Scott of head coaching duties. Scott will be replaced by General Manager Jeff Bower.

“I want to thank Byron for the hard work he has put in during his time with the Hornets,” said Hornets Owner George Shinn. “I’ve hired Jeff Bower to take over the coaching reign. He knows this team better than anyone, has the respect of the players and in basketball circles, is regarded as one of the best basketball minds in the business. This is our best opportunity to reach our goals this season.”

“Accountability was our theme this past summer,” said Hornets Vice President of Basketball Chad Shinn. “We talked about the fact that everyone on our staff is held to a certain standard of performance and we didn’t feel this was happening at the head coach level. We feel like we still have an opportunity with our nucleus to get to where we want and Jeff is the right guy, right now to move us in that direction from the bench.”

“As we look at our long-term coaching plans, it’s not about who the head coach is, it’s about the role of the head coach to get the team to perform to their capabilities and reaching our potential this season,” said Bower.

In a related move, Tim Floyd has been hired as the top assistant coach.

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