BASKETBALL

Jacque Vaughn’s strong work guiding the Brooklyn Nets earned him a contract extension at last season’s All-Star break. Just a year later, the Nets fired Vaughn after a 50-point loss against the Boston Celtics in his final game, their worst since moving to Brooklyn.

The Nets announced Vaughn’s departure Monday and said an interim coach would be named soon.

“This was an incredibly difficult decision, but one we feel is in the best interest of the team going forward,” General Manager Sean Marks said in a statement.

The Nets dropped five of their last six games before the break to fall to 21-33, putting them in 11th place in the Eastern Conference. Their 136-86 loss to the Celtics on Wednesday was their worst defeat since leaving New Jersey in 2012 and the second-worst in franchise history, and leading scorer Mikal Bridges seemed particularly frustrated in his postgame comments.

Vaughn finished 71-68 with the Nets, guiding them into the playoffs on two separate stints.

BASEBALL

MLB: Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals are no longer for sale, ending a search for a new owner after the team was on the market for nearly two years.

Principal owner Mark Lerner told The Washington Post on Monday during spring training in West Palm Beach, Florida, that his family “has determined that we are not going to sell the team.”

• Mike Trout, a three-time MVP and 11-time All-Star who has played in only one postseason series, said he has no interest in requesting a trade even as the Angels retool following two-time MVP Shohei Ohtani’s move to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

SOCCER

PREMIER LEAGUE: Roy Hodgson, the oldest ever manager in the English Premier League at age 76, left Crystal Palace on Monday just days after falling ill during a training session amid widespread reports he was about to be replaced.

The former England coach said he made the decision to step aside so Palace could bring forward its plans to appoint a new manager.