David Blatt FIRED

[csfansince60s]

here is an interesting read on blatt's firing. quite a bit in this article worth looking over.

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2016/01/why_david_blatt_got_fired_and.html

...and there's this:

LeBron James clearly didn’t want David Blatt to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers but apparently Tyronn Lue wasn’t his choice either. According to Adrian Wojnarowski, James and his camp wanted Mark Jackson to take over the reins of the Cavs.

Wojnarowski details how James and his agent Rich Paul worked overtime to undercut Blatt at every turn in order to set things up for Jackson to take over. Jackson hired Paul’s Klutch Sports agency to represent him, while Klutch and LeBron worked in defiance of Blatt. The Cavs caved on Friday, firing Blatt despite his team’s 30-11 record and first-place standing in the Eastern Conference.

As has been widely reported, James would often openly defy Blatt and change plays if he didn’t like them. It is absolute poison for a team if its leader completely disregards the coach. In recent practice sessions James “had become increasingly vocal” in his opposition to Blatt. That put enormous pressure on Cleveland’s front office to do something about it.

Cavs general manager David Griffin was willing to fire Blatt, but apparently didn’t want Jackson because of the awful behind-the-scenes stories from his time as head coach of the Golden State Warriors. Griffin constantly has to deal with the demands of James’ camp and didn’t want to also import the drama that Jackson might bring.

Lue became the compromise candidate, though he refused to dump his representation to join Klutch Sports. That could be an issue for him down the road, since James and Paul tend to look out for their own.

While we’re going to hear reports that James wasn’t consulted about Blatt’s firing, he deliberately created a situation where management had no other choice than to make a move. Now Lue has inherited the team and if he’s lucky LeBron’s camp won’t run him off too.

Cleveland Cavaliers, David Blatt, LeBron James, Mark Jackson, Tyronn Lue, NBA

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http://thebiglead.com/2016/01/23/lebron-james-mark-jackson-to-coach-cavs/

Mark Jackson?...Sad!

What's best for "the team", huh, Bron Bron?

[BudweiserCeltic]

Bleacher Report Alert!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2611328-miami-heat-minority-owner-claims-lebron-james-wanted-erik-spoelstra-fired

[manl_lui]

Bleacher Report Alert!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2611328-miami-heat-minority-owner-claims-lebron-james-wanted-erik-spoelstra-fired

I actually just caught the same article today by http://www.latinpost.com/articles/111776/20160127/nba-lebron-james-left-miami-heat-erik-spoelstra.htm

the quote that really stood out to me

"Blatt did a great job in Cleveland. He did everything he could, but he realized he couldn't tell LeBron James what to do."

and

Heat president Pat Riley told James that no one tells him how to run the organization and that Spoelstra was his guy. Everyone knows what happened after that.

it kinda sucks that a player holds THAT much power...but I guess it's easy for him when he's easily in the "who is the best player in the world" conversation. Someone who can easily change the direction of the franchise. But still, I personally like Brad Stevens a LOT as a coach, and it would suck if a coach like him, or even Pop gets fired over that

[Moranis]

piece is a pure hatchet job from a disgruntled staffer of the Heat.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying James doesn't have sway or pull, but that is just utter nonsense.

[BudweiserCeltic]

piece is a pure hatchet job from a disgruntled staffer of the Heat.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying James doesn't have sway or pull, but that is just utter nonsense.

Thing is, aren't these always sourced from disgruntled staffers? Like  if you have job why risk opening your mouth?

Not saying not to take this with a grain of salt, but at some point one has to move past the "disgruntled employee", while at the same time being aware of hidden motivations due to that fact.

[Moranis]

piece is a pure hatchet job from a disgruntled staffer of the Heat.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying James doesn't have sway or pull, but that is just utter nonsense.

Thing is, aren't these always sourced from disgruntled staffers? Like  if you have job why risk opening your mouth?

Not saying not to take this with a grain of salt, but at some point one has to move past the "disgruntled employee", while at the same time being aware of hidden motivations due to that fact.

There was nothing to the piece though.  It was pure speculation and crap.

[BudweiserCeltic]

piece is a pure hatchet job from a disgruntled staffer of the Heat.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying James doesn't have sway or pull, but that is just utter nonsense.

Thing is, aren't these always sourced from disgruntled staffers? Like  if you have job why risk opening your mouth?

Not saying not to take this with a grain of salt, but at some point one has to move past the "disgruntled employee", while at the same time being aware of hidden motivations due to that fact.

There was nothing to the piece though.  It was pure speculation and crap.

The Blatt portion was speculation, the Heat portions were more authoritative. If you want to buy it or not, that's another 20 bucks.

Edit: I re-read your post, and it's more clear what you were referring to. I had to re-read the article in the morning to refresh my memory of who was actually making the claims. But yeah, point still stands.

[fairweatherfan]

It's a minority owner on record, not an anonymous "staffer".  I'd expect the minority owner to know quite a bit about what happened with his team.  His opinions on Cleveland are speculation of course, but when you've seen the same script already play out in Miami, it's a reasonable assumption that something similar went down there, with a different ending.

[Donoghus]

So, wait, Windhorst wasn't right?

[bdm860]

Listening to Zach Lowe's latest podcast with Brian Windhorst, and they have an interesting take that I've yet to hear with all the LeBron bashing.

Basically, Blatt's a good coach no doubt, but he can easily rub people the wrong way, and it's easy to see why a lot of people might not like him.

Lowe gave an example about how he interviewed him during the Finals last year, tried to throw up a softball question to start things of with, something like "did you ever think you'd be in the Finals, playing in the Warriors crazy arena, with all your guys injured."  And Blatt responds with "Well I've been in championship games all over the world."

Then Windhorst gave similar examples, like how after Blatt's first NBA win, Kyrie said let's give him the game ball for his first win.  Blatt says "this is not my first win I have 700 wins."

Another Windhorst example was how Obama was at the Cavs/Bulls opening night game this year.  Again people are throwing up softball questions like "So it must be pretty cool to play in front of the President," and Blatt says "I've played in front of a lot of Presidents."

Also buried in this Windhorst article, it talks about how Blatt saw himself as this experienced coach with over 20 years experience who won championships and gold medals all over the world, but everyone else thinks of him as a rookie coach.  So Blatt thought he should already have the everybody's respect, while the everybody else wanted him to earn it (which of course he never did).

So Lowe's conclusion was that everything else is just noise, and the bottom line is a lot of people just didn't like Blatt.

[Roy H.]

It's a minority owner on record, not an anonymous "staffer".  I'd expect the minority owner to know quite a bit about what happened with his team.  His opinions on Cleveland are speculation of course, but when you've seen the same script already play out in Miami, it's a reasonable assumption that something similar went down there, with a different ending.

The Heat have denied the report, and the owner has recanted, indicating that a Hebrew language reporter got his words wrong.

[BudweiserCeltic]

It's a minority owner on record, not an anonymous "staffer".  I'd expect the minority owner to know quite a bit about what happened with his team.  His opinions on Cleveland are speculation of course, but when you've seen the same script already play out in Miami, it's a reasonable assumption that something similar went down there, with a different ending.

The Heat have denied the report, and the owner has recanted, indicating that a Hebrew language reporter got his words wrong.

So the equivalent of the "I got hacked" excuse. I bet he got pressured from majority owners.

But yeah, let speculations continue.

[fairweatherfan]

It's a minority owner on record, not an anonymous "staffer".  I'd expect the minority owner to know quite a bit about what happened with his team.  His opinions on Cleveland are speculation of course, but when you've seen the same script already play out in Miami, it's a reasonable assumption that something similar went down there, with a different ending.

The Heat have denied the report, and the owner has recanted, indicating that a Hebrew language reporter got his words wrong.

So the equivalent of the "I got hacked" excuse. I bet he got pressured from majority owners.

But yeah, let speculations continue.

Yeah, I hadn't realized it was an Israeli station, but I'd be curious what the "correct" translation is supposed to be.  The original version was fairly straightforward.

[ThaPreacher]

Lots of goodies in this article, but what I found most interesting is that Blatt seemed to flat out fear Lebron. In this article and others, it is mentioned that he would consistently not criticize Lebron during film sessions, and he would even call all kinds of fouls in Lebron's favor during practices. That' pretty much a no-win scenario right there.

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2016/01/23/locker-room-not-right-so-cavs-fire-blatt-and-hire-his-assistant

Also, all of this seems to make you respect Riley and Spoelstra a little more, because it seems that they at least didn't let Lebron rule things completely.

Years ago, Wilt Chamberlain who openly feuded with a number of his coaches made a remark that in summary was "that if he had a coach like Red Auerbach he would have won alot more championships".  He was implying that his coaches were inferior and that he needed to have someone capable of challenging his ego.  The only issue with this is that in order for this to work, Chamberlain would have to had to have a great deal more EQ and self-management in order to submerse his ego.  If he had that capability, why wasn't he doing that with his current coaches.  Lebron is in the same situation.  He wasn't able to be coached by Blatt for the same reason that he purportedly wanted Spoelstra out in Miami.  Imagine the opportunity he had in Cleveland to create a culture that was conducive to winning.  Had he supported Blatt and taken his differences behind closed doors, everyone else would have been more coachable, been more supportive and been more cohesive.  Instead, it seems like there are a number of divisions in that locker room.  There are a number of personalities on the Cav's that would have benefited from that type of leadership.  It's funny, when Paul Pierce finally grew up to become a leader and a champion was the moment he allowed Doc Rivers to actually coach him. 

I wonder if Lebron will ever do the same.

[Roy H.]

It's a minority owner on record, not an anonymous "staffer".  I'd expect the minority owner to know quite a bit about what happened with his team.  His opinions on Cleveland are speculation of course, but when you've seen the same script already play out in Miami, it's a reasonable assumption that something similar went down there, with a different ending.

The Heat have denied the report, and the owner has recanted, indicating that a Hebrew language reporter got his words wrong.

So the equivalent of the "I got hacked" excuse. I bet he got pressured from majority owners.

But yeah, let speculations continue.

Yeah, I hadn't realized it was an Israeli station, but I'd be curious what the "correct" translation is supposed to be.  The original version was fairly straightforward.

I think it could easily be that Katz was talking a bunch of nonsense. Lebron says he's never met Katz, and Katz was not only jilted by Lebron with the Heat, but was also part owner of Maccabi Tel Aviv, Blatt's old team.

Katz just sounds like a weasel.

Katz was quoted by respected international basketball reporter David Pick on Twitter as saying on Israeli radio of James, “He tried the same with Spo, but failed.” Reached Tuesday by the Sun Sentinel, Katz said, “That was my opinion. I am very careful with what I say. I have no knowledge of what happened.” – via South Florida Sun-Sentinel

 Dan Le Batard: Katz is a blowhard nuisance. Arisons been trying to buy him out for years. Heat employees have not been allowed to speak with him for years