76ers Fire Moe After 56 Games and Two 56-Point Losses

Doug Moe, his team coming off a 56-point loss and unable to adapt to a running game, was fired as coach of the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night.

The 76ers, playing their first season since the trade of Charles Barkley to Phoenix, will be coached for the rest of the season by assistant Fred Carter, according to 76er General Manager Jim Lynam.

Moe, the NBA coach of the year in 1987-88 with the Denver Nuggets, was hired in May and had 4 1/2 years to go on his contract.

“The way things were going, I felt that we had to make a change,” Lynam said. “We had made some progress after the bad start we had. But since that stretch where we played well, we have gone downhill.

“I did not see the prospects of it changing, thus the decision to make a change.”

A team spokesman said Carter will coach his first game tonight against the Timberwolves at Minneapolis.

The dismissal came one night after the 76ers lost, 149-93, to the Seattle SuperSonics. It was the second 56-point loss for the 76ers this season. They lost, 154-98, to Sacramento on Jan. 2.

Philadelphia is 19-37, in sixth place in the Atlantic Division. Last season, their worst in 17 years, the 76ers were 26-30 at the same point.

When Moe was hired, the team promised “basketball at the speed of sight,” but the 54-year-old coach admitted recently he had given up trying to get the players to run. He also conceded the 76ers never developed a defense.

Lynam flew out Sunday to talk with Moe and the team in Minneapolis. Moe did not answer the phone at his hotel room Sunday night.

Moe was not an easy fit for the 76ers. After five years with Lynam as coach, Moe’s bluntness was a cold shock. It became routine for him to tell his players how poorly they had just played.

“I’m disappointed things didn’t work out the way he expected, or the way we expected,” veteran guard Hersey Hawkins said. “I thought his system was right for the team.”

In 13-plus years with Denver and the San Antonio Spurs, Moe had a 609-492 career record. He is one of only 11 NBA coaches with more than 600 victories.