David Blatt Fired By the Cleveland Cavaliers aka LeBron James
As we’ve matured in our sports analysis, we’ve learned that sometimes we need to let the dust settle before reacting to breaking news. Approximately one week ago, Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Cleveland Cavaliers fired Head Coach David Blatt. The decision seemed strange. Why would an NBA organization fire a coach who led his team to a 30-11 mark this season? With the benefit of hindsight, the Cavaliers may have announced the firing of Blatt, but for all intents and purposes, LeBron James fired David Blatt.
Blatt and James Could Not Last
Cavaliers’ GM David Griffith said this week, James did not explicitly ask for the head coach to be fired. We think and so do the pundits on First Take, that this statement is true. James may not have made the call, but he approved the Blatt decision. Additionally, Griffith’s statements make the Cavaliers organization look worse. If LeBron were a true monarch, he would publicly admit he didn’t respect David Blatt and consequently, ordered assistant coach Tyronn Lue promoted. Instead, Lebron James undermined the authority of David Blatt for years and torpedoed the head coach’s chances for success.
SB Nation’s Mike Prada chronicled the tumultuous relationship between David Blatt and LeBron James. The article reveals players changed plays on their own and assistant coach Tyronn Lue often called timeouts on his own. We appreciate teams that can police themselves, but you can’t conspire behind your head coaches back either.
Let’s not forget, under Blatt’s direction, the Cavaliers made it to the NBA finals and are 30-11 this season. This is an unwarranted firing. Doug Gottlieb on the CBS Sports Network spoke to Yahoo NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, who revealed even more about the Cavs dysfunction. Cleveland believes James is currently out of shape and developed a ‘me first mentality’ after dealing with head coach Eric Spoelstra in Miami, according to Woj.
The Peril of Coach Killers
When star players have too much power in organizations, the results are rarely positive. For every Magic Johnson, there’s also Deron Williams, who get coaching legends like Jerry Sloan fired. King James now joins a very select group of NBA players known as ‘coach killers.’ Some of his brothers include the aforementioned Magic Johnson (Paul Westphal), Michael Jordan (Doug Collins), Kobe Bryant (Mike D’Antoni), and Dwight Howard (Johnny Davis, Chris Jent, Bobby Hill, Stan Van Gundy, Mike Brown, Bernie Bickerstaff, Mike D’Antoni and Kevin McHale.) Damn, someone call the FBI. Dwight Howard is a ‘serial coach killer.’