The Derek Fisher era, albeit short-lived, is now over in the Big Apple.
The New York Knicks (23-31) released the five-time NBA champion point guard of his head coaching duties on Monday morning, as president of basketball operations Phil Jackson announced that Fisher's reign as the head man in Manhattan was finished in a press release.
Former Knicks center Kurt Rambis, who won four championships with the Los Angeles Lakers as a player on the notorious "Showtime Lakers" teams of the 1980s before winning four more titles with the Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles squads of the 2000s with Fisher running the point for the Jackson-coached teams, will take over as the interim head coach.
While it is certainly acceptable to place Jackson at fault for the sorrowful state of the New York roster throughout the past two seasons surrounding star small forward Carmelo Anthony and rookie center Kristaps Porzingis, Fisher has suffered through two horrendous seasons at the helm of the Knicks, compiling a record of 40-96, good for a .294 winning percentage.
Despite beginning the season with a promising start, New York has faded of late while Fisher has not been able to devise a winning game plan for the team if they are without the services Anthony, as the team is 0-7 without his services on the season.
After sitting within the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff picture throughout the early portion of the season, the Knicks have fallen to 12th in the conference, five games behind the Detroit Pistons for eighth place, by falling short in nine of their last 10 games.
The harrowing stretch of poor play reached its climax on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, as New York dropped their fifth consecutive game with a 101-96 loss to the Denver Nuggets in which they relinquished a late advantage with a woeful 17-point fourth-quarter, Fisher's last on the Knicks bench.
The 57-year old Rambis, who has served as an assistant under Fisher in each of the last two seasons, will attempt to coax production out of the supporting cast of Anthony and Porzingis as the final 28 games of the season commence.
Rambis, who has 18 seasons of NBA coaching experience under his belt, has received two prior stints as the head man of a team. His first opportunity came in the 1999 lockout-shortened campaign as he led the Lakers to a 24-13 record and a berth in the Western Conference Semifinals, where they were swept by the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs.
The Cupertino, Ca. native then became the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves prior to the start of the 2009-10 season.
Hauntingly, Rambis compiled a worse winning percentage in his two seasons in the Twin Cities than did Fisher with the Knicks (.286), leading the Timberwolves to a 32-112 during his tenure.