The Cleveland Cavaliers once had one of the most accomplished coaches from Europe in their ranks.
David Blatt was an established and respected figure overseas, and he agreed to make it back to his hometown to embrace the challenge of leading LeBron James to his first NBA championship in Cleveland.
The Cavs were firing on all cylinders and worked as a strong unit during Blatt’s tenure there.
That’s why it was so shocking to hear that the team chose to fire him midway through the 2016 season.
With that in mind, Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report listed his firing as one of the most shocking in NBA history:
“[David] Blatt had had plenty of success overseas, particularly with Maccabi Tel Aviv, and he was seemingly going to bring some fresh ideas and approaches to the league. In his first season with the Cavs, that felt largely true. They went 53-29. They made the Finals. And despite getting rocked by injuries, they won two games against the Golden State Warriors in that final series. But there were certainly some rumblings about LeBron being dissatisfied with Blatt throughout that campaign. And despite starting 2015-16 with a strong 30-11 record, he was fired in January of that season,” Bailey wrote.
Blatt did almost everything well during his days in Cleveland.
His only mistake, however, was eventually his downfall.
He refused to cave into LeBron James, and once again, the legendary forward may have tweaked things behind closed doors to make sure things went his way.
James has a well-documented history of operating that way on all the teams he’s been a part of.
When he tried to do it with the Miami Heat, Pat Riley reportedly told him to stay in his lane and took Erik Spoelstra’s side.
The Cavs ultimately won an NBA championship with Tyronn Lue at the helm, and he’s proven to be a very good coach, so it’s not like it was a lost cause.
Then again, Lue, unlike his predecessor, took a different and more ‘player-friendly’ approach, and that may have been the main reason why he didn’t suffer the same fate.
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