Wizards fire coach Eddie Jordan

WASHINGTON (TICKER) —Off to a dismal start, the Washington Wizards on Monday fired coach Eddie Jordan.

Ed Tapscott, the club’s director of player development, will replace Jordan on an interim basis.

The Wizards, who are an Eastern Conference-worst 1-10, also fired assistant coach Mike O’Koren.

Jordan, 60, had coached the Wizards to the playoffs in each of the last four seasons.

However, the start of his sixth campaign seemed doomed from the start when guard Gilbert Arenas was ruled out until at least mid-December after undergoing offseason surgery on his troublesome left knee.

Washington also has been without underachieving center Brendan Haywood, who may miss the entire season with a wrist injury.

The Wizards’ decision to let Jordan go came less than three months after the club picked up a one-year option to keep him under contract through 2009-10.

Jordan - who had been Eastern Conference’s longest-tenured coach - inherited an awful team and went just 25-57 in his first season in 2003-04.

But Jordan guided the Wizards to the conference semifinals the following season before failing to make it out of the first round in each of the last three campaigns.

Overall, Jordan posted a 197-224 record in the nation’s capitol. His high point came when he coached the East at the 2007 All-Star Game.

Under Jordan, the Wizards displayed an entertaining motion offense built around Arenas and fellow All-Stars Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison.

This season, the Wizards have struggled on both ends of the court, especially defensively. Washington has surrendered 103.5 points per game to rank 27th in the league.

Showing a complete lack of defensive focus, the Wizards endured their fifth straight loss Saturday in a 122-117 setback to the New York Knicks.

Jordan became the second NBA coach in three days to lose his job after the Oklahoma City Thunder fired coach P.J. Carlesimo on Saturday.