National Basketball Association

Report: Blazers fire assistant coach who said Aldridge was leaving

Published Jul. 4, 2015 9:08 p.m. ET

foxsports

By Larry Brown

The Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday confirmed that Kim Hughes is no longer with the team, after the assistant coach made comments about LaMarcus Aldridge's intentions to leave the team.

Hughes, who was the team’s big man coach the past three years, said in an interview with WTHI a day after the draft that Aldridge was going to be leaving in free agency.

“Well, people don’t realize we just went young,” Hughes told WTHI, according to The Oregonian. “We didn’t publicize it, but we lost LaMarcus Aldridge. It hasn’t been declared yet, but I’m sure he won’t come back. We will go young.”

Hughes made his comments on June 27, a day after the team denied a report that Aldridge told the Blazers he would not be re-signing. On Saturday, the Oregonian reported that Hughes had been fired.

Prior to his work with Portland, Hughes, 63, was an assistant with the Clippers from 2003 to 2010. He briefly served as the Clippers’ interim head coach during 2010.

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