The Cleveland Cavaliers will face the Golden State Warriors on Thursday at 9:00 pm EST in Game 1 of the NBA finals. Cleveland is led by head coach Tyronn Lue and superstars LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love.
David Blatt was fired by the Cavaliers on January 22nd of this season. While his former team just over three months later prepares for the NBA Finals, Blatt is looking for houses in Turkey.
According to various reports, the former Cavs head coach is finalizing a deal with Darussafaka, a Turkish professional basketball team, to become head coach.
Source: Ex-Cavaliers coach David Blatt finalizing deal with Darussafaka for Europe return.
— David Pick (@IAmDPick) May 31, 2016
Pick also reported the deal will be around $2 million per year over an unreported amount of years.
Blatt was fired by Cleveland when the team was 30-11, which at the time was the best record in the Eastern Conference. The team’s General Manager David Griffin said he was fired because vision and style didn’t work well with the team’s. Blatt had just led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in 2015, which they lost in six games to the Warriors.
The Israeli had previously coached overseas, mostly in Israel since 1993. Before arriving in Cleveland prior to the 2014-2015 season, Blatt had been the Head Coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv since 2010.
Blatt has a long list of awards and accomplishments as a professional basketball head coach. He led the Cavs to the finals in his first season in 2014, has been named the Israeli League COach of the Year four times, and was the Russian Super League and Eurolead Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2014 respectively.
Darussafaka, Blatt’s new team, plays in Istanbul, Turkey. They’ve won the Turkish Basketball League championship twice, in 1961 and 1962.
There are five Americans currently on the team’s roster:
Reggie Redding – Undrafted guard out of Villanova University.
Jamon Gordon – Undrafted guard out of Virginia Tech University.
Marcus Slaughter – Undrafted center out of San Diego State.
Luke Harangody – 52nd overall pick in 2010 out of Notre Dame by the Boston Celtics. He played with Boston from 2010 to 2011 and Cleveland from 2011 to 2012. Harangody also played in the NBA’s D-League from 2012 to 2013 with Canton and Fort Wayne.
Erwin Dudley – Undrafted power forward and center out of Alabama.
Former NBA players who played for Darussafaka include Acie Earl (2002), Lamont Strothers (1996-1998), Michael Ansley (1997-2000), Richie Frahm (2002-2003), Sean Green (1998-200), Jermareo Davidson (2009-2010), Quincy Douby (2009-2010, 2014), and Jordan Farmar (2015).
