Marc Gasol insisted that he didn't speak out against David Fizdale to management to demand his firing as head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Gasol was benched for the fourth quarter of the Grizzlies' loss on Sunday to the Nets and Fizdale was fired the next day. Gasol and Fizdale had a strained working relationship.
“No,” Gasol said. “Not at all.”
Fizdale was in his second season as head coach of Memphis.
“Nobody likes to see a coaching change during the season,” Gasol said. “I was a little bit shocked by it.”
Gasol said he only spoke with Robert Pera after the decision had been made.
“I found out (about the Fizdale firing) from Robert,” Gasol said. “They called me after the decision was made to let me know the direction they were going.
“Nobody likes to be in the situation we’re in. And we were not finding a way to win collectively. We were breaking apart. Me and David didn’t see everything eye-to-eye all the time. But we both had the same intentions of making the team a collective, really strong unit. We couldn’t find a way to do that.”
