The Washington Wizards fired Coach Doug Collins yesterday, opening the door for the pursuit of former Philadelphia 76ers coach Larry Brown and other potential candidates.

Collins said he had expected to be fired after the team declined to rehire Michael Jordan as president of basketball operations. Jordan hired Collins in April 2001 and was tightly aligned with the coach during Jordan's two seasons as a player.

"Everybody had the sense all along that I was going to be fired," Collins said in a conference call from Hawaii, where he is celebrating his 30th wedding anniversary. "I think it was just a matter of when that was going to happen. Obviously, any time you get fired, it's disappointing. That hurts. But I understand the organization is moving in another direction. [Team owner Abe] Pollin was always very nice to me and the one thing I told them was I appreciated the opportunity to coach there in Washington."