Indiana Fever fire Stanley as coach after 2-7 start

The Indiana Fever fired coach Marianne Stanley on Wednesday with the team off to a 2-7 start in her third season and promoted assistant Carlos Knox to interim coach.

Stanley, 68, brought a Hall of Fame resume to the Fever bench, but her teams won just 14 games in a little more than two seasons.

The Fever have a youthful roster after drafting seven players in this year’s three-round WNBA Draft, including three three first-rounders.

“With this new group of players, it is time for our organization to go in a different direction,” interim general manager Lin Dunn said in a statement. “This was a difficult decision, and we wish Marianne the very best in the future.”

Not much went right in Stanley’s tenure. Indiana won just six games each of the two previous seasons. This season, only the 1-5 New York Liberty have fewer wins.

Stanley was in the final year of her contract. Knox was a star college player at IUPUI and played for the Indiana Pacers from 1998-99. He was named an assistant on Stanley’s staff in 2021.

Stanley has spent 45 years in coaching, including 22 years at the college level with Old Dominion University, Pennsylvania, Southern California, Stanford and California. She coached Old Dominion to the 1985 national championship.

She is set to be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 10.

“I want to thank the Simon family and the Fever organization for the opportunity to lead this team over the past 2-1/2 years,” Stanley said. “I look forward to the next chapter in my basketball journey, as well as being able to spend more time with my family.”