INDEPENDENCE: LeBron James may not be easy to coach, but he’s not a coach killer.
Saturday night against the Chicago Bulls at Quicken Loans Arena, James will play for the fourth man to direct the Cavaliers during James’ two incarnations in Cleveland. General Manager David Griffin relieved coach David Blatt of his duties Friday and named Tyronn Lue as his successor, not an interim replacement.
But I don’t believe James has been the puppet master, the one pulling the strings behind the scenes in every firing, despite the franchise’s history. More to blame is the team’s poor hires on owner Dan Gilbert’s watch. It’s not like one of the men James supposedly ran out of town won a championship elsewhere.
Yes, the firings of Paul Silas and Mike Brown were Gilbert decisions likely made to placate James or keep him from fleeing.
But Brown was a defensive expert who was overmatched offensively, in over his head during his two times in charge. After the Cavs fell to Boston in the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals, he was let go in May despite compiling the best record of a coach in team history. James left for the Miami Heat on July 8.
Silas, relieved of his duties just three weeks after Gilbert became majority owner in March 2005, had similar issues that plagued Blatt — inconsistent rotations and substitution patterns.
Gilbert said at the time Silas was not creating the best environment for players. James was 20 then, in his second year in the league, and probably didn’t take to Silas’s mentoring. But Gilbert had to want his own coach, not one he inherited.
It seemed evident after Griffin’s news conference Friday that Gilbert was perhaps Blatt’s only defender. James was surely one of the veterans who was disgruntled under Blatt, but not the only one. Blatt was hired before James came back to his hometown and other stars signed on to join him. He wouldn’t have gotten the job if Gilbert had waited until King James returned.
Griffin took responsibility for firing Blatt and might have put his job on the line in doing so with the Cavs boasting a 30-11 record.
But with the clock ticking on the prime of James’ career, Griffin is charged with delivering a title after Gilbert allowed him to rack up the second-highest payroll in league history. Griffin didn’t like what he saw and felt in the locker room, and it wasn’t just what James was or wasn’t doing.
Asked about James’ coach-killer reputation, Griffin was more than willing to answer.
“LeBron plays for this team and he’s the leader of this team and he desperately wants to bring a championship to this team. LeBron doesn’t run this organization,” Griffin said. “This narrative that somehow we’re taking direction from him, it’s just not fair. It’s not fair to him in particular, but frankly, it’s kind of not fair to me and our group any more.
“I’m not somebody who believes we don’t talk to the family before we make changes. We do. I talk to many players when we make decisions of magnitude that will change the locker room. This was one where I didn’t need to ask them questions. I’ve watched them interact with each other for a very long period of time under a lot of different circumstances. I know what something that’s not right looks like.”
Gilbert tried to make an outside-the-box hire with Blatt, who intrigued Gilbert with his 20 years of experience overseas. But Blatt didn’t know the NBA personnel or understand that his players needed to know their roles. This wasn’t Europe, where the mere title of coach brings respect and authority. He didn’t have the personal skills that would make players trust him and play for him. He was incapable of creating a family atmosphere, even though it appeared there was one in last year’s NBA Finals.
The parting was inevitable. I’m glad Griffin had the nerve to do it before Blatt was named Eastern Conference coach for the All-Star Game. I can only imagine what Blatt’s interactions with the league’s best players would have done not only to his reputation, but also the Cavs’.
But I can’t put this on James. I can’t see him as a backstabber, a manipulator, a man who would go all out to cause a father of four to lose his job.
Perhaps I’m being naive. But I have more faith in James as a person to believe that.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.