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David Blatt: more pressure to coach in Israel

By Stanford Crissey

Jan 31, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt looks on during the second quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. The Cavaliers defeated the Timberwolves 106-90. Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 31, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt looks on during the second quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. The Cavaliers defeated the Timberwolves 106-90. Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports /
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Embattled Cavs coach says pressure is nothing new to him

Before they went on a February tear that has seen them win 14 of their past 15 games (including a 12-game winning streak), David Blatt’s Cleveland Cavaliers were 19-20 and looked like a sinking ship, and Blatt was coming under some serious fire.

Coaching LeBron James and a team that’s considered one of the title favorites always comes with a larger than normal dose of scrutiny, but this was worse than usual. Stories were coming out left and right: how Blatt wasn’t respected or liked by the team; how they were ignoring his play calls; how he needed to be fired.

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And still, after all that, Blatt says that there was more pressure on him when he was coaching in Israel.

Blatt came to the Cavs via Maccabi Tel Aviv, a team that has won a ridiculous 51 Israeli league championships and is probably the best-known non-NBA basketball team in the world. With Maccabi Tel Aviv, Blatt won six Israeli Cups, leading to interest from the Cavaliers this offseason.

Blatt spoke at the Shaw Jewish Community Center’s annual Sports Dinner and talked about his time in Tel Aviv, saying that there, simply winning wasn’t enough.

“When we won by 25 people were screaming at me,” Blatt told the audience, as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal‘s Marla Ridenour.

Blatt faced some scrutiny early in his tenure in Tel Aviv as well, saying that he was nearly fired because the team “lost a couple games.”

“Sitting on the train, people recognize you, everyone’s going to talk to you,” Blatt added. “Every two people have three opinions. I had to stop taking the train, wasting all that gas and suffering in traffic. I realized I couldn’t take it any more.”

So whatever people say about Blatt, in the press or otherwise, it would seem that he’s heard it all before. And Cavs fans can feel all right with Blatt now that the team is back on track. And even if that weren’t the case, Blatt does have one important thing going for him: he’s not Mike Brown.

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