By TEDDY GREENSTEIN
Tribune News Service
Moments after being saved from a blunder that would have left him synonymous with Chris Webber — plus whoever failed to give the ball to “Beast Mode” at the end of the Super Bowl — Cavaliers coach David Blatt stood outside the Cavaliers’ locker room at the United Center.
If you expected him to appear stressed, perhaps plotting a return to Russia — where he is a “legend” according to Cavs big man Timofey Mozgov — you would have been disappointed.
Blatt engaged in a jovial conversation with a friend. And when approached to comment for a feature story, he could not have been more cordial.
He identified three main differences between coaching in the NBA and overseas: 1) The NBA’s hyper-condensed schedule allows for little practice time; 2) The NBA’s longer game (48 minutes versus 40) “is like a lifetime for me with the stoppages of play and managing your minutes to keep guys fresh”; and 3) “In Europe, the coach is king. Here it’s different.”
Here, at least in Cleveland, the King is king.
LeBron “King” James reminded everyone of that later Sunday when he practically boasted of having “scratched” Blatt’s play, which called for him to inbound the ball from under the basket with 1.5 seconds remaining.
“I told coach there is no way I’m taking the ball out unless I can shoot it over the backboard,” James said. “Just give me the ball and either we go to overtime or I was going to win it for us. That simple.”
James validated his veto by draining a 21-footer over Jimmy Butler, an improbable result considering he hit 3 of 15 from outside the paint in the game’s first 47-plus minutes.
But, hey, it worked.
And if Blatt’s reputation was collateral damage, here’s guessing James can live with that. His comments regarding Blatt have been largely dismissive throughout the series, so why change now?
Before Game 1, James referred to Blatt as a “rookie coach in the NBA” — a term insiders say, though accurate, rankles the 55-year-old Blatt, who led the Russian national team to a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics and guided Maccabi Tel Aviv to the 2014 Euroleague championship.
Observers also took note when James, after Pau Gasol hit 10 of 16 shots in Game 1, made a point about the Cavs defense against the pick-and-pop.
“That was the coverage we were in,” James said, “and they exploited it.”
It needs to be noted that James is not on an island — especially regarding Sunday’s game-winning play. Teammates J.R. Smith and Kyrie Irving were more than happy to detail what happened, with Irving — unprompted — saying James “basically crossed (out) the whole play that coach drew up.”
ESPN analyst Chauncey Billups opined on the air Monday that Blatt’s plan to have James inbound the ball “would have been a huge mistake.”
Blatt’s Cavs are tied 2-2 with the Bulls in a series in which drama has overshadowed offensive ineptitude. Neither team shot better than 39 percent in either game in Chicago, and James averaged 7.5 turnovers.
The other theme has been the heat thrown at Blatt, who was spared the ignominy of calling a timeout the Cavaliers did not have by assistant Tyronn Lue, who pulled him back to the bench.
Blatt owned that mistake Sunday, saying “I almost blew it.”
Blatt certainly has his defenders, not to mention those who feel he does not need defending.
Craig Robinson played with Blatt, two years his senior, at Princeton. He recalled Blatt making him feel “welcomed and important” on his recruiting trip and taking charge to organize all the non-official team functions.
Blatt is from Boston and loved Bill Russell. Robinson, brother to Michelle Obama and the former coach at Oregon State, would brag about Bob Love and Chet Walker of his hometown Bulls.
When Blatt was selected to coach the Cavs and then James made the stunning decision to return to Cleveland, Robinson was struck with this thought: “Good fortune smiles upon good people.”
J.R. Holden is a Pittsburgh native who thrived in Europe and ran the point for the 2007 Russian national team, which stunned Spain to win the FIBA EuroBasket championship.
Holden hailed Blatt for his short, intense practices (“as soon as you get in the gym, you are moving”) and his total immersion in both the game (“basketball consumes him”) and his team (“he becomes emotionally invested in you, so you want to fight for him.”)
Now a college and international scout for the Pistons, Holden recalled misfiring time and again in that 2007 title game against Spain. Then Blatt broke the tension.
“Emotions are running high, and Coach Blatt calls a timeout,” he said. “We have a chance to pull off one of the biggest upsets in the history of European basketball — against both Gasols (Pau and Marc) and Rudy Fernandez. He says to me, ‘What did you eat for breakfast?’ We’re all laughing. He says: ‘If you miss any more easy shots, you can’t come on the bus with us.’”
Holden won the game with a short jumper — after stealing the ball from Pau Gasol.
“He is a player’s coach,” Holden said.
That’s partially why, as one NBA insider put it, Blatt could be the “perfect coach for LeBron … if LeBron opened up.”
James is notoriously tough on his coaches, unlike Michael Jordan, who supported everyone from Kevin Loughery to Doug Collins to Phil Jackson. (Jordan made up for it by harshing on his teammates.)
James never had a college coach, a Dean Smith, but Cavs assistant Jim Boylan doesn’t fault James for an instant.
“LeBron is definitely coachable,” Boylan said. “He wants coaches to coach him and have opinions. He’s a great player with an incredible IQ, but he doesn’t shut down because he knows the game. He wants to exchange and engage with you, and that’s the great thing about him.”
So it falls on Blatt to build the relationship. And he knows it.
“LeBron, because he’s such a knowledgeable, high-IQ guy, you coach him and you work with him, but you also have to partner with him,” Blatt said. “He’s an experienced guy who has won in this league and has the respect of all and the knowledge to match any. It’s best to coach him in a way that makes him comfortable and efficient.”
