The Minnesota Timberwolves have fired coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to USA TODAY.
The person requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly until the team announced the decision.
The Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday afternoon and improved to 19-21. But they are in 11th place in the Western Conference, 8½ games behind the first-place Denver Nuggets.
"We would like to thank Tom for his efforts and wish him all the best," owner Glen Taylor said in a statement. "These decisions are never easy to make, but we felt them necessary to move our organization forward."
Thibodeau was 97-107 in his two-plus seasons with Minnesota. They made the playoffs last season and were expected to build from that, given their young core of Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. But that never happened. The season got off to a horrible start when All-Star Jimmy Butler requested a trade, creating a dysfunctional atmosphere.
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