LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers fired Frank Vogel on Monday, choosing their championship-winning head coach to take the first fall for one of the most disappointing seasons in NBA history.

Los Angeles wildly underachieved this season, finishing 33-49 and missing the 10-team Western Conference playoffs in a humiliating conclusion to a year that began with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony and a veteran-laden supporting cast widely expected to contend for another championship.

Vogel was fired exactly 18 months after he led the Lakers to the franchise’s 17th title in his first season in charge. Almost nothing has gone right in the ensuing two seasons for the rosters assembled by General Manager Rob Pelinka and coached by Vogel, who went 127-98 in his three seasons running the club. He was under contract through next season.

“Frank is a great coach and a good man,” Pelinka said in a statement. “We will forever be grateful to him for his work in guiding us to the 2019-20 NBA championship. This is an incredibly difficult decision to make, but one we feel is necessary at this point.”

ESPN reported Vogel’s imminent firing immediately after the Lakers finished the season by beating Denver in overtime Sunday night. During an awkward postgame news conference, Vogel admitted he had not yet been told of the club’s decision before it was leaked to ESPN.

It was a dismal, embarrassing end to a tenure that began tremendously for Vogel, the former coach at Orlando and Indiana. The Lakers claimed a title in the Florida bubble in October 2020, but didn’t win another playoff round in the next two seasons.

Los Angeles never resembled a championship team this season despite trading for Westbrook and signing Anthony to play alongside James and Davis. The Lakers stumbled along near .500 until Jan. 7, when they entered a 10-30 nosedive exacerbated by Davis’ latest lengthy injury absence.

Despite another impressive season from the 37-year-old James, the Lakers never jelled this season with a roster including nine players over 30 and 11 players who weren’t with the team last season. Davis managed to play in only 40 of their 82 games, while Westbrook struggled mightily to fit into the Lakers’ team concept during one of the worst seasons of his professional career.

76ERS: Matisse Thybulle took a seat, took a breath and took a moment to explain why he made a choice – one the Philadelphia 76ers defensive specialist admitted he tried to keep hidden – not to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Thybulle’s choice will cost him playing time in the postseason, and could cost the Sixers their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series against Toronto.

Thybulle is barred from Canada because unvaccinated foreign nationals are currently prohibited from entering the country and limited exemptions to the rule no longer apply to professional athletes.

Thybulle’s situation first became known last week when he was suddenly listed as “ineligible to play” on the NBA injury report on Philadelphia’s most recent trip to Toronto.

Thybulle broke his silence Sunday once the Sixers clinched the No. 4 seed and were matched up against the fifth-seeded Raptors. The Sixers will play at least Games 3 and 4 of the series in Toronto. Game 1 is Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center.

“I was raised in a holistic household, where anti-vax is not like a term that was ever used, it’s a weird term that has been kind of been thrown around to just label people,” Thybulle said. “We grew up with Chinese medicine and naturopathic doctors. Just with that upbringing, coming into the situation, I felt like I had a solid foundation of medical resources that could serve me beyond what this vaccine could do for me. As things escalated, and as this situation has played out, I’ve obviously had to reconsider and look at it differently.”

Thybulle said he did feel the need to get one shot at an unspecified point of last year’s postseason — played in May and June because of COVID-19 — but did not receive a second shot.

“I felt like if I’m going to be a part of society, in the position that I’m in, I need to do what’s right for the greater good,” Thybulle said. “That argument with the greater good held a lot of weight on me. As things progressed, as this virus has changed in many different ways, it showed … that even while being vaccinated you could spread the disease.”

KINGS: Sacramento fired interim coach Alvin Gentry, a day after the franchise missed the playoffs for a 16th straight season.

The 67-year-old Gentry was promoted from associate head coach to interim coach when the Kings fired Luke Walton in November following a 6-11 start. Sacramento won 116-109 at NBA-leading Phoenix on Sunday to finish at 30-52.

Gentry had most recently served as head coach for the New Orleans Pelicans (2015-20). He has also made head coaching stops with Miami, Detroit, the Clippers and Phoenix. He has a career record of 534-636.

TIMBERWOLVES: Head coach Chris Finch signed a multi-year contract extension, after guiding the team to seventh place in the Western Conference and a play-in game berth.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Timberwolves also announced contract extensions for Finch’s assistants, the day before they host the Los Angeles Clippers for a spot in the playoffs.

“It’s been a season that all of us, including our fans. can be proud of,” Finch said in a statement distributed by the team. “I’m grateful that my staff will continue to lead us forward.”

Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Sachin Gupta said Finch’s leadership is “unmatched and was evident by this year’s team success.”

Hired midway through the 2020-21 season to replace the fired Ryan Saunders, Finch has a 62-61 record for the second-best winning percentage (.504) by a head coach in Timberwolves history. The late Flip Saunders (.521) is first. Minnesota went 46-36 this season, the second-best record for the long-languishing franchise over the past 18 years.