While Blatt's hire may by the Cleveland Cavaliers may not be the historic moment that Becky Hammon's new job represents, it does represent a significant sea change in the way NBA front offices look at hiring a head coach. While the recent hires of first time coaches Mark Jackson and Steve Kerr were significant, each of them had significant experience as NBA players. Blatt, on the other hand, had never played or coached in the NBA. Blatt is American and played college basketball at Princeton but since then he's made his career and his reputation as a basketball mind in Europe.
During his time in Europe, Blatt served as an assistant coach for storied European franchises Maccabi Tel Aviv and CSKA Moscow before eventually becoming a head coach in Israel, Turkey and Russia. Perhaps most notably, Blatt became the Head Coach of the Russian National Team, who he led to an unlikely European Championship over the host and favorite, Spain.
Most recently, Blatt won the Euroleague Title for Maccabi Tel Aviv, leading a collection of decent European players and good to average former College Basketball players (Tyrese Rice and Alex Tyus might ring a bell) to a victory over a Real Madrid team featuring five former or current NBA players (all of whom were 1st round picks). While Maccabi Tel Aviv is regarded as one of the most well run and successful franchises in European Basketball, they neither possess the pedigree nor financial wherewithal to attract the caliber of players that clubs in the Spanish, Greek and Russian league can, and do.
When Blatt became the head coach of the Cavaliers a couple of short months ago, it was newsworthy and significant. Since then, the below average team he took over has added the game's most transcendent star and possibly (wink wink) another top 10 player. Blatt was always going to need some time to adjust his coaching style to the NBA. Now, he'll be doing it with the biggest possible spotlight on him. He'll be learning on the fly and doing it under the weight of great expectations and with the basketball world watching.
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30 comments:
is he blind? mentally challenged? the pic is less than flattering, but everything else is very good!
Since he played point guard at Princeton I'll go with no on both counts.
The most interesting thing (to me) about Russia's European Championship team is that both their coach and point guard were American.
becky hammon plays for russia in international competition. post synergy!
Are the Cav's coaching outfits going to be sponsored by Benetton too?
where the fuck is summer dave?
I imagine most of the G:TB staff will enjoy this read. http://rol.st/1ydp3Ot
kenner league semifinals tomorrow at 3:15. minisummit in the works. marcus thornton's team oohs & aahs takes on team takeover, which is rumored to be bringing victor oladipo into town for the game.
Brian Kelly arrived to practice today on a horse.
i commuted on a shetland pony. big fucking deal.
I need to get up DC one of these summers for some Kenner League action and some beers afterward, of course.
the old 97s show at the brooklyn bowl last night was interrupted by a power outage, so rhett and the boys did an impromptu acoustic set on the street outside. pretty cool stuff.
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2014/08/old_97s_brookly.html
this mcilroy kid might have a future.
There's a 12 year old pitching for Delaware in the LLWS who's 6'1" 175. Good Lord.
A different kid on the Delaware team lists his hobby as 'messing with sister'. I like this kid.
One other note for NBA history this summer--the players elected a woman to lead the union.
If they were going to pick anyone instead of my friend Fox, I'm glad it was a woman...
i was gonna make a joke about johan kok rising up the pga leaderboard, but shlara's comment makes that seem a little bit immature.
Juwan Kok would be a funner joke.
some of you may have seen that james brady, the white house press secretary who was shot by john hinckley during the latter's attempted assassination of ronald reagan, died this week. today, a medical examiner in alexandria, va ruled brady's death a homicide. the shooting was 33 years ago. i find this perplexing.
It's a medical ruling not a legal one. Not sure what the exact finding was by the ME, but they apparently determined that Brady's death was not of natural causes but rather was due to complications stemming from being shot in the head in 1981. Not all that strange.
On the legal front, I doubt that the DOJ will take up prosecution as as proximate cause will be really hard to prove to a jury, notwithstanding the issue of the insanity defense that prevailed at his earlier trial.
if only we could put gtb's diverse knowledge set and obvious charm to profitable use
Bottles completes his first handoff!
Jags with signs of mediocrity, which is a good thing. And then there are their helmets.
On the other hand of that game, the Tampa Bay OLine is gawdawful
Took my stepdaughter out for some school shopping and dinner. Came home to a broken AC.
A little warm in here right now.
Happened to me y/day, Mark. Cost me "only" $600 to fix. Brutal.
The AC is new so it's supposedly covered ipbunthe warranty. We'll see.
Fuck.
Outside Lands Music Festival. Stories to come.
hey gheroghies!
stories t come
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