Calipari changed the culture with the nets, and took the nets to the playoffs with a 43-39 record, where they had to face Jordan and got swept.

The squad of van horn, Sam Cassell, Kittles, and Jayson Williams were a good ass team. Jayson Williams turned into the best rebounder in the league under him, bagging 86 mil contract.

However, the following season, the nba went through a lockout, and New Jersey came back for that short season with a lot of players injured. And they had a terrible record because of it, but that wasn’t why he was fired.

He was fired for trying to tell the organization how it should operate, and that rubbed upper management the wrong way. He was seen as a young arrogant know it all, so it was easy for the org to use that losing season against him to fire him.


https://www.espn.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=broussard_chris&page=calnbadays-090402

As a 30 something year old coach, he had 1 winning PO season and 2 losing seasons. Far from abysmal, and for a young ass coach at that? Not bad at all, considering the current NBA coaches who have been losing for years.