Kevin McHale was fired as head coach of the Houston Rockets on Wednesday (18 November) after the team started the season with seven defeats in their 11 Western Conference matches.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Daryl Morey, Houston Rockets General Manager:

"We relieved Kevin McHale of his head coaching duties. We hired J. B. Bickerstaff as the interim head coach. This was a very tough decision. I want to thank Kevin McHale, he did great things for the team and the city of Houston - made the Western Conference Finals. This was very tough. Probably don't see much sleep here. Bottom line is that we believe in this team. We believe in the players we have. We know this team can win, but we know that we aren't in a good place and we're going to make changes until we win, that's the bottom line. And we had to make the tough call as what was the best thing to be done to get our season on track. And we think J. B. Bickerstaff is the best person to lead us out of where we're at. We owe it to everybody, the city of Houston, the players, to do what it takes to have this team win. I'm very confident that we can turn this around."