Nelson Replaces Cleamons

Jim Cleamons was willing to keep trying to teach the Dallas Mavericks the triangle offense even if it cost him his job. On Thursday, it finally did.

Owner Ross Perot Jr., who had turned down General Manager Don Nelson’s recommendation to fire Cleamons in April, decided to replace Cleamons and his ineffective, plodding system with Nelson and his freewheeling style.

Nelson, who became the Mavericks’ general manager on Feb. 7, is seventh on the NBA all-time list of coaching victories with an 851-629 record.

Dallas went 24-70 in one-plus seasons under Cleamons, with losses in 12 of its last 13. Attendance and fan interest also were sagging, two major problems with the team facing a Jan. 17 referendum for taxpayers to build the team a new downtown arena.

Cleamons, a former Chicago Bull assistant in the second year of a four-year, $5-million contract, was to have been fired after Thursday’s game, but media reports were so widespread that team officials decided to let him go before the morning shootaround.

Assistants Butch Beard and Sonny Allen also were fired.

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Houston Rocket forward Charles Barkley has reached an out-of-court settlement with the man police say Barkley flung through a plate-glass window in a bar fight, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

But Randy Means, a spokesman for the Florida state attorney’s office, said his office will decide by next week whether to file formal charges against Barkley.

A lawyer for Jorge Lugo, who went through a window at Church Street Station in Orlando on Oct. 26, said he was prevented by the agreement from disclosing terms.

Barkley said he didn’t know anything about an agreement with Lugo.

“I wish [he] were dead,” Barkley said of Lugo.

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Coach Phil Jackson defended Scottie Pippen’s continued presence at Bull practices and on road trips by saying that until the all-star forward leaves the team, they are his family and Chicago is his home.

“Giving him the love and consideration that a teammate gives, that’s what we want to have for him, but we want him to understand that this is a relationship that could possibly end for him,” Jackson said of Pippen, still recovering after foot surgery in October.

Feeling underpaid and unappreciated by General Manager Jerry Krause and owner Jerry Reinsdorf, Pippen has demanded to be traded, saying he’ll never play for the Bulls again, even after he is ready to return in two to four weeks.

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Veteran guard Ricky Pierce, 38, who played for Milwaukee from 1984-91, signed a one-year contract with the Bucks, filling a roster spot vacated by an injury to rookie Jeff Nordgaard (torn thigh muscle).