After a very rough year, Derek Fisher is ready to share his side of the story. The former New York Knicks coach has penned an open letter to his fans and colleagues in hopes to put to rest the rumors of why he was fired from the Knicks last month, making sure to point out that it had nothing to do with his very public fights with former teammate Matt Barnes. Fisher and Barnes got into a physical fight last October over Fisher's relationship with Gloria Govan, who is Barnes' ex-wife.
First, he explains what went down between him and the Knicks organization: "When the organization informed me of its decision, the conversation was short. The underlying message was that things weren’t working out the way they had hoped. I thanked management for the opportunity, and that was it," he writes. "At no time did anyone at that meeting express to me that stories about my personal life were distracting from the collective task at hand, or — more important — that any of my players had expressed to management that they had lost confidence in me as their coach. Nothing remotely like that was ever brought up or discussed."
That's not hard to believe, considering Fisher led the Knicks to a franchise-worst 17-65 last season, his first year as a head coach in the NBA. His pink slip came right after the Knicks lost nine out of 10 games in February.
He then goes on to explain what happened that night last October between him and former teammate Matt Barnes, who reportedly showed up at Gloria Govan's house and starting brawling with Fisher. “I don’t know what was going through Matt’s mind that day in October when he showed up unannounced at Gloria’s house, and started swinging. I didn’t retaliate," Fisher writes. 
He added that he felt the need to address the situation when “story after story was published that portrayed her as a piece of property, instead of the strong, independent woman and mother she is; someone who is capable of making her own decisions.”

Read the full letter over at The Cauldron. Hopefully it will be the last time D. Fish will have to talk about this mess.

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