Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin on Friday fired his hand-picked coach, citing some vague "disconnect" and lack of "spirit" on the team with the NBA's third-best record, 30-11.
I guess he couldn’t just come right out and say resident superstar LeBron James wanted it that way.
Check this out: Blatt is the most successful coach ever fired in the middle of a season.
Hard to believe things could be so bad in the midst of all this winning, but maybe you had to be there.
Problem is, when expectations soar out of control and the payroll skyrockets, management gets nervous even when there’s little or nothing to be nervous about. Because, let’s face it, anything short of a late-June parade marking the end of Cleveland’s 52-year title drought will be considered a failure.
Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle chose the word "bizarre" to describe what happened in Cleveland. He also said he's "embarrassed" for the league.
Tough to argue with him, at least until we hear from some players, who conveniently were unavailable Friday. There wasn’t so much as a peep — or a tweet — from LeBron.
I'm sure the Cavs will continue to roll on with the universally respected Tyronn Lue, LeBron's buddy, in charge. They'll get out of the East and face either Golden State or San Antonio in the Finals.
Only then will we know if this move was right.
In the meantime, looks like legendary football coach Bill Parcells was wrong. You’re not what your record says you are, as he was fond of saying. Not always anyway.
If so, David Blatt would still be coaching the Cavs.
Time to wake up now; Wright State’s in first place
Seems like only days ago Wright State’s men’s basketball team was 3-7 and the coaching seat occupied by Billy Donlon was warming with each passing loss.
Surely this would be Donlon’s last season guiding the Raiders’ fortunes, right? Would he even finish it?
But a funny thing happened on the way to Donlon’s presumed demise: The Raiders started getting healthier, and they started winning.
Make it nine of their last 10 after Friday's 73-62 ambush of Valparaiso pulled the Raiders into a first-place Horizon League tie with the Crusaders.
A crowd of 5,499 watched WSU outscore Valpo 16-0 during one second-half stretch. They also saw this momentum-seizing 70-foot bank shot by Grant Benzinger at the end of the first half that made it to ESPN.
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