--Avery Johnson was fired the day after a disappointing season ended with a first-round playoff exit in New Orleans. Incredible highs and heartbreaking lows marked the tenure of Johnson, who leaves as the most successful coach in franchise history by many measures.

Johnson became the eighth coach in team history on March 19, 2005 and posted a record of 194-70 (.735) during the regular season. He led the Mavs to the playoffs four consecutive years, including a trip to the 2006 NBA Finals. His postseason record of 23-24 (.489) included 12 losses in the last 15 games.

"You've got to take the good with the bad," Johnson said. "That is called life. There are a lot of highs and lows in coaching, but the highs outweigh the lows. The rewards outweigh anything.

"I've been through much worse. There are a lot of people in bad shape, and I am not one of them."

In his first full season as head coach (2005-06), Johnson guided the Mavericks to 60 wins and their first appearance in the NBA Finals. He became the coach to reach 50 wins the soonest (62 games), coached the Western Conference All-Star team and was named the NBA's Coach of the Year.

Johnson led Dallas to a franchise-record 67 wins, the NBA's best record, the following season. The mark was also the sixth best in league history. Following a 10-0 month of February, Johnson garnered Western Conference Coach of the Month honors, an award he won three times in his career.

This season, Johnson reached 150 victories faster than any other coach in NBA history when the Mavs defeated Memphis on November 17, 2007. He accomplished that feat in just 191 games.

--Rick Carlisle was the first to interview for the Mavericks' vacant coaching position and, as it turned out, got the job. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban confirmed to reporters that an oral agreement was in place, and president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson had said earlier, "We're very impressed by Rick, his basketball IQ and, more important, the kind of person he is."

Carlisle, 49, coached in Detroit and Indiana, compiling a 281-211 regular-season record and 30-32 playoff mark, and has guided both teams to the Eastern Conference finals. He claimed the 2001-02 Coach of the Year award with the Pistons and played five years in the league.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"Sometimes you need a new voice. It's not that I'm cool with it or I'm not resilient or I'm not disappointed. But this is a part of coaching. Because of that, I've said it all the time: Coaches, we're going to resign or we're going to get fired." -- Avery Johnson on the team tuning him out.

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