New Cavs head coach David Blatt has amassed his fair share of European hardware.
The NBA has plenty of Euroleague athletes among its teams’ rosters.
Now, it has its first head coach.
Last year, as the Boston Celtics began searching for a replacement for Doc Rivers, who was essentially traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, Blatt was mentioned by some reputable basketball writers—including our very own Chris Sheridan—as a possible candidate. However, the job went to Butler coach Brad Stevens.
Long time Euroleague coach David Blatt has accepted an offer to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers. His journey to becoming an NBA head coach has been a long one. Blatt, an Israeli-American from Massachusetts, left for Europe after graduating college at Princeton. He spent most of his 12-year playing career abroad playing point guard for teams in various Israeli leagues—Ligat HaAl, Israel Super League and Liga Leumit.
After his playing days came to an end, he went straight into coaching, starting as an assistant manager with Hapoel Galil Elyon, one of the many teams he had played for. During his first year with the team, the head coach was fired and he assumed the role for the remainder of the season, serving as interim head coach. The following season, he assumed the role of assistant under Pinhas “Pini” Gershon. This would not be the last time that these two budding star-coaches would pair up, as they would later work together for Maccabi Tel Aviv, the winningest club in Israeli basketball.
Thirteen years into his professional coaching career he was appointed as head coach of the Russian National Team. Since joining Russia in 2006, he has led them to 2007 gold and 2011 bronze medals in the biannual FIBA EuroBasket championship. He also coached Russia to a bronze in the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
Four years ago he returned as the head coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv, having led them to an impressive 222-55, including a 54-18 record this season en route to the Israeli League, Israeli Cup and Euroleague championships.
Now Blatt is in the NBA. His contract is being reported as a three-year deal worth $10 million, with a fourth-year team option. The contract, as Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reports, has incentives that can increase the contract’s value.
Cleveland’s deal with David Blatt pays $3.33M annual base, with incentives that can push salary to $5M per, front office source tells Yahoo. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 20, 2014
Players who have played for Blatt heap praise on his coaching acumen and ability. Memphis Grizzlies guard Beno Udrih took to Twitter to praise his former coach.
Congrats to #DavidBlatt on head coaching job with the Cavs…been my coach back in the days in Europe!!Well deserved! He is a great coach!! — Beno Udrih (@BenoUdrih1) June 20, 2014
Former Cleveland Cavalier Jeremy Pargo, who played for Blatt during the 2010-11 season when they went 50-7, heaped high praise on his former coach when talking to EuroBasket.com.
Blatt is a great coach. His pace of the game is pretty much NBA pace and he coached guys that are familiar with the NBA style. He’s really a smart guy. Blatt understands emotions of players, their different attitudes, and knows how to get it all into one.
“Those are ingredients one needs to be a successful coach in the NBA. NBA coaches deal with lots of different things such as, players who are pretty much the coach themselves or guys that don’t agree with the coach, and you need to be able to work it all out and get wins in difficult situations — and I think Blatt is pretty good at that.”
Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin expects that Blatt will have a seamless transition to the NBA.
David is a great basketball coach and a special person. His abilities to communicate, to build relationships with his players and to foster winning environments at several stops throughout Europe and across the highest levels of International competition speak for itself. He brings unbridled passion, energy and creativity to his craft.
“I have watched David’s work for many years. He has an uncanny ability to adapt his system to maximize the talents of his teams year after year. That is why I am very confident he will make a smooth transition to the NBA.”
With the NBA Draft less than a week away and countless rumors swirling around the Cavs, who have the top overall pick, and potential trade scenarios with the hopes of possibly luring Akron native and four-time MVP LeBron James back, it will be interesting to see how Blatt’s hiring will impact such talks—if they have any merit at all to begin with.
One week removed from the NBA Finals and already the offseason is shaping up to be beyond intriguing.
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_______ Michael Brumagin writes the Tweet of the Day for SheridanHoops.com and is also a correspondent for BleacherReport.com. Follow @mbrumagin