The Cavs are giving a championship ring to the coach they fired before the playoffs
David Blatt might not have been able to watch the 2016 NBA Finals, but he’s going to get a lovely — albeit pretty weird — gift from the festivities, all the same.
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The Cavs hired Blatt in the summer of 2014 to lead what was expected to be a rebuilding young roster, but all that changed when LeBron James decided to come home. Blatt compiled an 83-40 regular-season record and an Eastern Conference championship in parts of two pretty eventful seasons in Cleveland, but was fired midway through the 2015-16 campaign, despite boasting a 30-11 record and the No. 1 seed in the East, in a move that was reportedly a long time in coming. Assistant coach Tyronn Lue might have found the midstream ouster “f—– up”, but he moved up to the head of the bench all the same, becoming a head coach for the first time and steering the Cavs (with a little help, of course) to their first-ever NBA championship in June, after which he received a five-year, $35 million contract extension.
Lue and the rest of the Cavaliers will receive their NBA championship rings — which look real nice, by the way — when Cleveland tips off the 2016-17 season at Quicken Loans Arena against the New York Knicks on Oct. 25. Blatt won’t be there … but, oddly enough, there will be a ring for him, according to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal:
Blatt was fired at the midpoint of the Cavs’ championship season, but the team has ordered a ring for him, too, multiple sources confirmed to the Beacon Journal. He is now the head coach of Darüsşafaka Doğuş in Turkey.
So … that’s weird, right? Like, yes, Blatt was the coach for the first half of the championship season, but still: the Cavs jettisoned Blatt halfway through the campaign because they believed a different approach and voice could do a better job of turning a super-talented roster into a champion, which is exactly what wound up happening. Blatt certainly contributed to Cleveland’s growth during his tenure there, but the Cavs fired him specifically because they didn’t think he could get them to the promised land, and he wasn’t there when they actually arrived. So, again: this is weird, right?
Blatt, evidently, agrees:
I told David Blatt the Cavaliers will ship him a championship ring. He didn't believe it.
— David Pick (@IAmDPick) September 15, 2016
As beyond-belief items go, though, ones that end with you getting large hunks of gleaming diamond-encrusted jewelry aren’t that bad, I suppose. It might not make Blatt feel much better about the way things went down, but if nothing else, it ought to be a hell of a motivational tool for the guys at Darüsşafaka Doğuş.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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