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While most Cavs fans know that David Blatt came from overseas, very few know much more than that. He is a rookie head coach in the NBA, but his experience through 25 years of playing and coaching the game of basketball overseas makes the Cavs seem all that much smarter for choosing him as Head Coach. We’ve got hte top 10 things you didn’t know about Blatt, and we start with number 10:
10. Blatt was born in Boston, Massachusetts
Believe it or not, the Israeli basketball coach was born in the US! Blatt was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1959, despite his Israeli ancestry. He was raised in the Boston area, and began playing basketball at an early age. He was admitted to Princeton University in 1977.
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9. Blatt played PG and studied English Literature
At Princeton, Blatt played for their Men’s basketball team, suiting up for the Division-1 Tigers for the duration of his time at Princeton. Blatt was also very focused in his studies, majoring in English Literature! He would go on to complete his senior thesis on Bernard Malamud, author of The Natural.
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8. Blatt played in Europe as a college student
By Blatt’s senior year (1980-1981), he was Co-captain as the team went 18-10. Additionally, in the summer of his senior year at Princeton, Blatt played in the Maccabiah games, where he helped lead the USA national team to a gold medal. This exposure to the Euroleague would prove vital to Blatt’s future.
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7. Despite being undrafted out of college, Blatt had a successful playing career
Following his career at Princeton, Blatt went undrafted in 1981, so he took his talents to Europe. For the next 13 years, Blatt had a solid basketball career, playing for numerous professional Israeli basketball teams.
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6. Blatt was a well known coach in Europe
Typical of most player-coaches, Blatt immediately went from being a player to a coach after his retirement in 1993. He stayed in Israel, coaching the very professional teams that he once played for. After a brief stint in the mid 2000’s, Blatt returned to Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2010, where he would coach until his jump to the NBA in the summer of 2014. Coaching in the Euroleague, Blatt racked up a 208-55 record, which made him one of the most winningest coaches in Euroleague history.
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5. Awards and Recognition cannot be overlooked
Through his 12 year coaching career in the Euroleague, Blatt was a 5x Israeli League Champion, a 6x Israeli Cup Champion, and 4x Israeli Coach of the Year recipient. In his final year with Tel Aviv, Blatt lead the team to win the 2014 Euroleague Championship, which allowed him to also win Euroleague Coach of the Year honors.
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4. FIBA Eurobasket Championship win
Blatt was hired to take over coaching duties for the Russian national team, and he didn’t disappoint. He helped guide the team to the FIBA Eurobasket Championship game in 2007, where they left Spain with the Gold medal.
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3. Blatt actually coached the Cavs Summer League team himself
Surprisingly in the summer of 2014, despite LeBron’s desire to pick his next head coach, the Cavs went ahead and signed a four-year deal with Blatt for him to become the next head coach. This was viewed as suicide by the Cavs, since Blatt had no prior NBA coaching experience. LeBron ultimately decided to come home, which ended up working in favor of the Cavs.
Although head coaches usually designate Summer League coaching duties to their assistant coaches, Blatt decided to coach the games so that he could both familiarize himself with NBA coaching and the Cavs players.
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2. Blatt and Mozgov knew each other before the trade!
Something of significance- At this point, Cavs C Timofey Mozgov joined the Russian national team, and this was the first time that Blatt coached Mozilla. This familiarity would later be significant in leading the Cavs to make a blockbuster trade for Mozgov in January of 2015.
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1. Blatt is a proven winner globally
Although they won the year before, Blatt and the Russian team were overwhelmed by the other teams in Beijing, as they did not even make it to the knockout round in 2008. At this point, Blatt was coaching NBA players such as SF/PF Andrei Kirelinko on the national team. They would go on to capture the Bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympic games, showing a vast improvement compared to their 2008 Olympic performance.
