As he usually does, Yahoo Sports!’s Adrian Wojnarowski stunned Twitter on Friday afternoon when he reported that the Cleveland Cavaliers fired head coach David Blatt, even though the Cavs currently have the Eastern Conference’s top record (30-11).
Cleveland has fired coach David Blatt, sources tell Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) January 22, 2016
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Blatt, who went 83-40 in his one-and-a-half seasons in Cleveland, led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals last season, where they eventually fell to the Golden State Warriors. To replace him, the Cavaliers have hired assistant coach, and former NBA player, Tyronn Lue to a multi-year deal.
There has long been talk of dissension in the Cleveland locker room between Blatt and LeBron James, stemming from the Finals, which the Cavaliers lost in six games. Per multiple reports, LeBron was upset with Blatt’s in-game decisions during the series and, according to Wojnarowski, has been advocating for Lue to become the head coach since last season.
Cleveland’s decision to let go of a coach who has done nothing but win with the Cavaliers certainly is surprising, but the deep-seated animosity between the team’s star player and Blatt has been well-documented.
So, of course, you might be thinking what this news has to do with the 11-32 Nets, who host the Utah Jazz tonight at Barclays Center, right? On the surface, probably nothing, but Blatt is certainly an interesting coaching candidate for the Tony Brown-led Nets.
First off, Blatt, a Massachusetts native who holds both American and Israeli citizenship, coached the Russian national team for six seasons, from 2006 to 2012, and won a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics. There’s an immediate connection to Nets owner Mikhail Prokohorov, who, according to a NetsDaily.com story from 2009, is “believed to know and respect [Blatt].”
Additionally, Blatt played college basketball at Princeton under famed coach Pete Carril, who is generally credited with perfecting the legendary — and aptly named — Princeton offense during his tenure. After graduated, Blatt went to Israel, where he stayed for nearly 25 years as a player and then a coach. In 2004, he was named the head coach of Israel’s national team as well as the head coach of Dynamo St. Petersburg in Russia, which competed against CSKA Moscow, a team Prokhorov openly supports and has financially supported in the past.
Blatt then moved onto Italy, where he coached Benetton Treviso for two seasons. Then, in 2006, he became the coach of the Russian national team and would stay in that position for six years, during which he coached teams in Turkey, Russia, Greece and Israel. After departing from his post with Russia in 2012, Blatt continued to coach Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel until 2014 before taking the head coaching job with the Cavaliers.
Ironically, in one of his last acts with Maccabi, Blatt beat CSKA Moscow in the semifinals of the Euroleague playoffs, before taking down Real Madrid to win the championship. Beyond Prokhorov’s interest in CSKA Moscow, the connection between the Russian team and the Nets has been noted in various ways.
Would Prokhorov consider Blatt, then, as a potential next head coach for the Nets? All signs seem to point toward yes. Blatt has coached against Prokhorov’s favorite Russian team for years and even led the national team of his home country for a long period of time. He also has experienced success, albeit limited, in the NBA and has experience working with star players, even if said stars weren’t totally in agreement with his coaching decisions.
The Nets could do significantly worse in their coaching search than picking up Blatt, who probably would be open to going to a team without the kind of Type A personalities that hastened his downfall in Cleveland. At the very least, it would be surprising if Prokhorov didn’t even give him a call.
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