Ford Driven Out Of Dodge By Carr

Chris Ford’s five-year reign as coach of the Boston Celtics, marred by the retirement of Larry Bird and death of Reggie Lewis, is over.

Ford, who struggled to rebuild the team amid repeated setbacks, was fired Wednesday after his second straight losing season.

M.L. Carr, director of basketball operations, said he wants to have a successor by the June 28 draft.

“I’m not going to put a time on,” said Carr, a former teammate of Ford’s with the Celtics. “I’m going to take a couple of days and step back from it.”

Ford, who met with Celtics officials Wednesday, planned to comment at a news conference today. He was smiling as he left the team’s office. The Celtics were 35-47 this season, the only playoff team with a losing record.

Ford is owed a reported $1.6 million under a two-year contract extension he received before this season. There are coaching openings with Miami, Golden State and the two expansion teams - Toronto and Vancouver.

Ford, 46, had to withstand the loss of the Big Three - Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish - in consecutive seasons.

Ford has a 222-188 record.

“I’m sure there are other opportunities for him to move forward because Chris is not only a knowledgeable coach, but he will continue to work at it,” Carr said.

Van Excellent

Once the euphoria began to wear off, perhaps somewhere over Arizona, exhaustion started setting in. But for Lakers guard Nick Van Exel, it was the best kind of tired.

Van Exel’s running, rainbow 3-pointer with half a second to play in overtime gave the Lakers a 98-96 victory over San Antonio in Game 5 of Tuesday’s Western Conference semifinals. Game 6 is tonight.

And how did Van Exel feel when he pulled the plug on the party?

“It’s great,” he said. “When you first come out, everybody’s booing you. Then, you leave with the victory and you see all the fans flipping you off, giving you the finger, throwing things at you when you walk through the tunnel … it’s a good feeling.”