NBA News Wire
Report: Cavs reach agreement with Blatt
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
The Cleveland Cavaliers reached an agreement with David Blatt to be their new head coach, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Blatt met with team officials for two days this week and was offered the job Thursday night.
Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Tyronn Lue was the other finalist for the job left vacant when Mike Brown was fired in May.
Blatt, 55, recently resigned as coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Blatt was born in Boston and went to college at Princeton, but he has spent his entire playing and coaching career overseas. He has had a successful 20-year coaching career in Europe that included coaching teams in Israel, Greece, Russia and Turkey.
He led Maccabi Tel Aviv to the Euroleague championship this season. In 2012, he coached the Russian national team to the bronze medal at the London Olympics.
Blatt played for coach Pete Carril at Princeton and runs the Princeton-style offense.
Steve Kerr was interested in hiring Blatt as his lead assistant with the Golden State Warriors.
It has been reported that the Cavaliers contacted at least another five candidates, including former Warriors coach Mark Jackson and college coaches John Calipari of Kentucky, Kevin Ollie of Connecticut, Billy Donovan of Florida and Tom Izzo of Michigan State.
