LeBron James-David Blatt rift is real, says Marc Stein
June 18, 2015Are the Browns better? Friday Five and more: While We’re Waiting
June 19, 2015The Cavaliers fell short of the NBA Championship and that’s sad, but overall it was a good season. You’d think that once the shock of it all being over wears off, there would be mostly good things to say. In their post-season media availability, David Griffin bemoaned the lack of a positive narrative as he answered questions about the future. Alas, the sports world is dominated by controversy, both real and invented. It’s so much so that you can’t always tell which is formulated and which is indicative of real life. One of the biggest controversies continues to revolve around Cavaliers head coach David Blatt, LeBron James and his future employment, namely with those same Cleveland Cavaliers. Terry Pluto asked the question, and David Griffin gave the answer pretty unequivocally.
TERRY PLUTO: How would you assess the job that coach David did, and in light of since the series has ended there have been several — whether you want to call them attacks or highly critical stories — about how David Blatt coached and his relationship with LeBron. I’d be very curious to see where you’re at with all of that?
LeBron himself said he thinks coach has done a hell of a job.
DAVID GRIFFIN: Relative to the tone of the stories, I really don’t care. I think sensational sells now, and certainly with a team like ours the more sensational the better. LeBron himself said, I think it was June 1st, LeBron himself said he thinks coach has done a hell of a job. So if you want to use his actual words, that’s what the man said.
From my perspective I’ve said this all along, you don’t go 33-3 with those guys healthy and put together the team we had, have it be an offensive juggernaut, and then have to turn around and play without them, be a defensively stifling team, that literally chokes the life out of a 61 team and sweeps them in a playoff series and have your coach not do a hell of a job. He did. I think our whole staff did. And we literally won an incredible number of games against very, very good teams playing radically different styles from each other. So from a purely basketball perspective, I’m not quite sure exactly what anybody is looking to have happen.
I really appreciate the fact that there is this cool narrative hanging out there, and you can say this forever. It literally never has to go away, sorry, coach, no matter how many times we win, no matter how much we win, it never has to go away because it’s all conjecture.
So I think one thing David did as well as anybody I’ve ever seen, and I wish I did better, was just ignore the noise from the media perspective. Because frankly, none of that means anything. We know what actually takes place here.
Nobody can stop the speculation about coach David Blatt and his future with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Marc Stein from ESPN wrote today about his observations of a disconnect between the Cavaliers’ head coach and its superstar LeBron James. Even as recently as a few minutes before David Griffin and David Blatt hit the podium to discuss the Cavaliers’ season, Bruce Drennan was reporting from sources close to the Cavaliers that David Blatt was due to resign his post.
While you never know what the future may bring, as of today the Cavaliers continue to stand by their coach and he doesn’t seem to give any indication that his immediate future will be anything other than coaching the Cavaliers.
10 Comments
Just watched it myself and could find nothing not to like. I agree 1000% with David Griffin when he said that you just have to accept the stories and go about your business because nothing will change.
Ironically I watched Drennan cite his sources which he loves to do only to have to come back after airing this press conference and avoid eating crowe. I like Drennan but I’ll never forget the way he reacted to LeBron leaving and the complete unprofessional manner in which he acted. I say this because he loves to present himself as being the uttermost professional possible when in truth he’s nothing but a glorified fan. Now that LeBron is back it’s like he never left.
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Griffin must have been referring to the national poo-flingers and possibly the morons who comment on Cleveland.com because I’ve read and heard loads of positive narrative in our local print, broadcast, and electronic media, including nearly universal (ahem) positivity on this site.
national poo-flingers!!!
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I always laughed at Drennan and his sources but today was hysterical when he said that and then Blatt said he’s not.
I could not ever see any professional coach resigning his post.
first of all, i think that might forfeit the remainder of his contract, so from a financial standpoint (and a “I’m not a freaking moron” standpoint) it’s completely out of the realm of possibility. Second of all, professionals are fighters who don’t give up. they don’t let you take them, they make you pay to conquer. No way that guy is resigning.
That’s what happens when you try to be first but man did he have egg on his, to borrow one of his words, puss.
Blatt should resign now he is a 2nd tier coach and out of his element.
60 win team, not 61 team….come on, Craig
Sports talk is what it is…..speculation to the nth degree. Speculation is not permitted as evidence in a court of law, but we sure eat it up when we talk to each other about life, don’t we. Sickening.
I’m confident in the Cavs heirarchy to do the right thing and keep Blatt….and I love what Griffin said…”We know what actually takes place here.”
agree. And if his reason for leaving European ball, where he was a highly compensated coaching star, was to try and succeed at basketball’s highest level, why would he quit after 1 year, a year where he had to figure the league out but still came within two wins of a championship? When you add that he has the world’s best player, two other stars and an owner ready to spend, conjecture that he was ready to quit makes no sense at all. At 55 years old his best chance to reach the peak of his profession is right here and right now.
This stuff about homesickness and humiliations chasing him back to Europe is media ever seeking the big drama angle.
David Griffin literally overuses the word “literally”.