Atkinson out as Nets coach in surprise split

NEW YORK — Kenny Atkinson won’t have the chance to coach Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together in Brooklyn.

The Nets and their coach decided his influence with the team ran out before that pair could get started.

The Nets surprisingly split with their coach Saturday, even as they remain on track for a second consecutive playoff berth.

The announcement came less than 12 hours after Atkinson guided the Nets to a 139-120 rout of San Antonio. General manager Sean Marks said he and Atkinson had been talking long before that about what was best for the Nets, and they finally concluded it wasn’t their fourth-year coach.

“He has taken us to where we stand today and I think the discussions that he and I had were what’s best for the Nets for a variety of different reasons, which I don’t think either one of us will get into,” Marks said. “But it’s time for another voice in the locker room and it’s time that we both part ways.”

Marks offered no specifics but said the decision had nothing to do with Durant, Irving or any other players on the roster.

Rather, he said, it was he and Atkinson deciding that the coach who took the Nets from the bottom of the NBA to the playoffs wasn’t the guy who could take them any further — even though Marks said Atkinson had proven himself as an NBA coach.

“But I think we’d both come to realize that it ran its course here and you wish it could have lasted much, much longer, but these are the tough decisions that we both basically have to have,” Marks said.

Marks acknowledged that the decision was surprising, but he called it amicable and believed he, Atkinson and ownership were all at peace with it.

Marks informed the players by text message Saturday morning and then discussed the decision with them at the team’s training facility. Players who had been here in previous seasons didn’t sense that Atkinson wasn’t getting through anymore but also acknowledged that things have changed in Brooklyn this season.

“I think you go across this league and you talk to every coach and every player,” forward Joe Harris said, “and dealing with a young, up-and-coming team is much different than coaching superstar players, and everybody kind of realizes that it’s a much different dynamic. And I wouldn’t say that’s the reason why we’re in this position right now, but it is different.”

Assistant Jacque Vaughn will serve as coach for the rest of the season. He coached Orlando for twoplus seasons, from 2012-15.

The Nets are in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Atkinson was 118-190 in 3 1⁄2 seasons of his first NBA head coaching job.

Atkinson