Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
It’s safe to assume the Cleveland Cavaliers did not think they would be getting LeBron James back when they hired David Blatt as head coach last summer, and reports throughout this past season suggest the two may not have a good relationship.
Speculation about Blatt’s future ramped up immediately after Cleveland’s NBA Finals loss to the Golden State Warriors, and James can become a free agent again this summer if he chooses to opt-out of his contract. That may suggest that James has leverage over the Cavaliers, from choosing who he wants as coach to dictating personnel moves, but his already shaky public image would take a big hit if he left his hometown team again after just one season.
Marc Stein worked the sideline for ESPN Radio’s coverage of the Finals, and a recent article from him paints James in a very bad light. I’m truly not surprised at most of the apparent revelations about James, but I still think a player has to know his place and not willfully attempt to circumvent the authority of the coach.
Stein’s piece suggests that James was essentially calling timeouts and making substitutions, while visibly showing dislike for a play Blatt drew up during a stoppage in play and openly yelling about coaching decisions he didn’t like. That does not include what we could see as a television audience throughout the series, as James often completely avoided eye contact with Blatt during timeouts and appeared to be off in his own little world.
The disapproval of what Blatt was drawing up on a white board is not major as a single event, but combined with the other stuff Stein conveyed it’s a troubling glimpse of the pure arrogance James has in him. Five years after “The Decision”, and the boy-band pep rally he had with his new Miami Heat teammates after “taking his talents to South Beach”, James has now added looking like a whiny, petulant child to that past (and possibly present) lack of self-awareness.
If Blatt is fired, James’ refusal to co-exist with a coach he did not hand-pick would be the only clear reason. Assistant Tyronn Lue may be the head coach James wants for the Cavaliers going forward, and I really hope that’s exactly what he gets as Blatt goes on to success elsewhere.
Brad Berreman is a Senior Writer at Rant Sports.com. Follow him on Twitter.
