Philadelphia 76ers general manager Ed Stefanski has been told to begin work on finding a new coach, a league source told ESPN on Wednesday night.
That means the long-rumored dismissal of coach Eddie Jordan seems to be on the horizon. The 76ers will hold an 11 a.m. ET news conference at their practice facility to officially announce the move. The Associated Press also reported Thursday that Jordan would be fired.
Jordan, hired last May, is finished after a woefully underachieving season that had the Sixers mired near the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Jordan was hired last summer and sold his Princeton offense as the way to turn them into contenders.
Instead, players were unhappy with his system almost from the start and the Sixers struggled to put together any kind of winning streaks. The Sixers finished 27-55 and missed the playoffs for the first time in three years.
The Sixers will be looking for their fourth coach in three seasons.
Jordan, who was fired last season by Washington, has two years left on his contract and is owed $6 million.
Jordan, who starred at Rutgers, had ties with Stefanski from their four seasons together with the New Jersey Nets.
Stefanski will address the media at the news conference.
Jordan said Wednesday he was "not concerned" about his job security before the Sixers lost to the Magic 125-111 to end the season. Jordan had said he anticipated a team meeting, player-exit meetings and taking his staff out to lunch on Thursday.
"If you want to be judged alone on the record, then we are where we are," Jordan said. "But as far as track record, as far as how the league works, as far as evaluating your personnel, maybe we need more time."
He won't get any more of that, though.
Jordan's dismissal had been widely speculated for months, especially after Stefanski refused to say in January that Jordan's job was safe for the rest of the season, with the team off to a 10-25 start.
Jordan's hire was panned by fans and media from the day he arrived and the players never warmed to the Princeton offense.
Marreese Speights, Thaddeus Young and Lou Williams were among the promising core of young players whose progress took a major step back this season.
Elton Brand hasn't performed up to the $80 million contract Stefanski gave him two summers ago, Samuel Dalembert was his usual erratic self and Andre Iguodala continued to prove he can't carry the franchise.
The decision to bring back former franchise great Allen Iverson was a short-lived bust.
"The talent is there, it is just a matter of putting it all together," Iguodala said Wednesday.
Philadelphia was the Eastern Conference's No. 6 seed last season, eliminated in the first round by the Magic in six games. Now the Sixers are headed for the draft lottery. Their only key loss was point guard Andre Miller.
"They judged the team from their performance last year and the personnel lost," Jordan said. "Obviously, the personnel changed, maybe, maybe expectations should change. Maybe."
Brand was healthy for the first time in three years, but the power forward who was once a 20-10 regular, often was benched for long stretches and crucial fourth quarters. Jordan openly criticized Brand and Dalembert's effort and missing defensive awareness after a loss last week.
"There were times things happened [under Jordan], but it was a feel-out process during the season," Brand said after Wednesday night's game. "That is understandable and didn't work that well for us, as the record indicates."
Jordan had a 230-288 record as coach of the Wizards and Sacramento Kings, but Stefanski gave him a three-year deal.
ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher and The Associated Press contributed to this report.