Carr Will Coach Celtics Himself

M.L. Carr has never coached. His boss doesn’t know if he can. Yet the Boston Celtic director of basketball operations took the coaching job Monday after a long search--by himself.

The enthusiastic Carr is devoted to changing the somber mood surrounding the once proud franchise. He is committed to installing a running game.

“It’s an open question as to whether or not M.L. can coach,” Paul Gaston, the Celtic chairman of the board, said at a news conference. “I think we’re all going to have fun finding out.”

Carr, 44, had one year added to the three seasons remaining on his contract and will handle both jobs.

Chris Ford, fired May 17 after five years as coach, had received a contract extension from Carr last summer. But Boston was the only playoff team this year with a losing record and was eliminated in the first round. Shortly afterward, Ford was dumped.

Dennis Johnson, one of Ford’s assistants who will keep his job, said Carr “has played this [game]. He knows the Xs and Os from there. It hasn’t changed that much.”

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Brian Winters, an assistant with the Atlanta Hawks and once one of the NBA’s top shooters, was hired as the first coach of the expansion Vancouver Grizzlies.

Winters, 43, signed a three-year contract. He was an assistant for nine years in Cleveland and Atlanta under Lenny Wilkens, the winningest coach in NBA history.