Frank Vogel, coach of the Phoenix Suns, argues with an official during game against the Milwaukee. Vogel was fired by the Suns on Thursday Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
PHOENIX — Frank Vogel’s tenure as coach of the Phoenix Suns is done after one disappointing season that ended without a playoff victory.
The franchise fired the 50-year-old Vogel on Thursday, less than two weeks after getting swept out of the first round of the NBA playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“After a thoughtful review of the season, we concluded that we needed a different head coach for our team,” Suns General Manager James Jones said in a statement. “We appreciate Frank’s hard work and commitment.”
Vogel was hired last summer with much fanfare and charged with leading the Suns’ All-Star trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. The group had some good moments, but was never quite able to jell.
Beal was hurt for much of the first half of the season. Even when he returned, the Suns were plagued by turnovers and a thin bench. Vogel said before Game 4 against the Wolves that he’s “got the full support of (owner) Mat Ishbia” and expected to be back for a second season.
Now he’s out of a job.
Vogel always seemed like a strange fit for the Suns, even though he won a championship with the Lakers in 2020 in the Florida bubble. He was a defensive-minded coach in charge of a team that’s strength was offense. All season, it felt like the coach was searching for answers.
“You reflect back on the season, we were just inconsistent with our play and the style of play that we wanted,” Durant said after the playoff sweep. “But I think guys will dig deep this summer, work on what they need to work on individually, the coaches will make adjustments because we’ve got stuff on film from all season on who we can be.”
Booker and Durant are among the 12 players who will represent the U.S. at this year’s Paris Olympics.
CAVALIERS: Cleveland will be without center Jarrett Allen for Game 2 against the Boston Celtics on Thursday as he continues to deal with bruised ribs.
Allen is missing his fifth consecutive game. He hasn’t played since Game 4 of the Cavaliers’ first-round series against the Orlando Magic.
KNICKS: OG Anunoby won’t play for New York in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Friday night because of a strained left hamstring, while Jalen Brunson is questionable with his sore right foot.
Brunson returned from his injury after missing the second quarter to lead the Knicks to a 130-121 victory on Wednesday for a 2-0 lead over the Indiana Pacers. But Anunoby was hurt in the second half after scoring a career playoff-high 28 points, leaving the Knicks’ injury-depleted frontcourt without yet another starter.
PACERS: Indiana has, as Coach Rick Carlisle said they would, sent 78 plays they believe were officiated incorrectly from the first two games of their series against the New York Knicks to the NBA office for review, a person with knowledge of the action said Thursday.
“I’m always talking to our guys about not making it about the officials,” Carlisle said after Game 2 on Wednesday, a 130-121 win for New York that gave the Knicks a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series. “We deserve a fair shot. There’s not a consistent balance and that’s disappointing. Give New York credit for the physicality that they’re playing with. But their physicality is rewarded and ours is penalized, time after time.”
Carlisle said the Pacers identified 29 plays from Game 1 that they had issue with, but that he decided against sending those clips to the league office because he believed “we’d get a more balanced whistle” in Game 2.
“It didn’t feel that way,” Carlisle said.
GLEN “BIG BABY” Davis, a former player with the Boston Celtics, was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in a federal prison for his participation in a scheme New York prosecutors said defrauded an insurance plan for NBA players and their families of more than $5 million.
More than 20 people were convicted in the case, many of them onetime NBA players who submitted fictitious dental and medical claims to the NBA Players’ Health and Benefit Welfare Plan. A jury found Davis and former Detroit Pistons guard Will Bynum guilty in November.
Davis will have three years of supervised release after he serves his term, and he has been ordered to pay $80,000 in restitution. Davis’ attorney, Sabrina Shroff, declined to comment. Bynum was sentenced last month to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release and also must pay $182,224 in restitution.
Prosecutors said doctors and dentists working with the players created fraudulent invoices that were submitted to the supplemental insurance plan for reimbursement. Davis was found guilty of health care fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to make false statements and conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud.
TIMBERWOLVES: Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns was named the recipient of the NBA ‘s social justice award on Thursday.
Towns was one of five finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Trophy, which was created in 2021 to honor a player for pursuit of social justice while upholding the values of equality, respect and inclusion. The other finalists were Miami’s Bam Adebayo, New Orleans’ C.J. McCollum, Oklahoma City’s Lindy Waters III and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Russell Westbrook.
All 30 teams nominate one player for the award, which was chosen by a committee led by the Hall of Fame member Abdul-Jabbar, league executives and social justice leaders.
Towns has been an advocate for expanding voter rights in Minnesota to include formerly incarcerated individuals, among other causes.
BUCKS: Milwaukee guard Patrick Beverley was suspended by the NBA on Thursday for four games without pay to begin next season for his actions during and after the final game of an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series with the Indiana Pacers.
The league announced the suspension and said Beverley was getting punished for “forcefully throwing a basketball multiple times at spectators and an inappropriate interaction with a reporter during media availability.”
This suspension was handed down one day after Indianapolis police said they were investigating an “NBA player and citizen” altercation that happened during that May 2 game without mentioning anyone by name.
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