Former Cavs HC David Blatt says LeBron is top player in the world

David Blatt’s time with the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers is one of the most memorable stretches in franchise history.

Cleveland Cavaliers former head coach David Blatt had high praise for LeBron James on Saturday, calling him “the best player in the world” in an interview with EuroHoops’ Aris Barkas.

"“He is the best player in the world, but like a said before he is also human. He is simple, works hard and respects everyone in the organization”."

It’s not a unique opinion, although having coached the both the best international and American players in the world, Blatt is uniquely qualified to say that James is the best player in the game.

Further, given James’ all-around mastery, versatile defensive impact, elite athleticism, understanding of the game and appearance in eight consecutive NBA Finals, those that say James hasn’t been the top player in the league for nearly a decade may be underestimating his impact.

However, it’s interesting to hear these comments in light of how Blatt’s NBA tenure panned out.

Plenty of head coaches get fired but Blatt was fired despite coaching the Cavs to a 53-29 record in 2014-2015 and to the 2015 NBA Finals.

In the Finals, the Cavs managed to take the series to six games with Kyrie Irving missing five games and Kevin Love missing the entire series. He adapted on-the-fly and the gritty defense they played in that series became a staple of their defensive strategy in future matchups.

Blatt coached them to a 30-11 record the next season, the terms like “borderline genius” that players like Mike Miller ascribed to Blatt’s offensive schemes are forgotten.

Even LeBron, a noted student of the game, was seeing more options in Blatt’s free-flowing Princeton offense than he was used to seeing.

Nonetheless, there were multiple occasions cited as violations for Blatt:

Most memorably, he almost called a timeout he didn’t have in the 2015 Eastern Conference semifinals. Most humorously, in 2016, he held a postgame conversation with LeBron in nothing but a towel.

But in all seriousness, Blatt showed favoritism in practice to get in LeBron’s good graces, would get nervous drawing up plays on huddles, had trouble recognizing the weights of situations and failed to connect with his players.

Oh, and the Cavs suffered a few humiliating blowouts too, like a 29-point loss to a Damian Lillard-less Portland Trail Blazers squad.

It was clear, reading between the lines, that Blatt was overwhelmed. Not with being in the NBA but for coaching a LeBron-led juggernaut straight out of the gate.

To his credit, LeBron was never publicly critical of Blatt, even going out of his way to be complimentary of the NBA neophyte.

Today, neither are with the franchise after LeBron James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in July. However, an NBA return for Blatt isn’t out of the question.

The New York Knicks interviewed Blatt for their head coaching position in April before hiring David Fizdale in May.