After coming off of a season that brought the city of Cleveland its first pro-sports championship in over five decades, Tyronn Lue was rewarded with an extension Monday, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
According to Wojnarowski, the deal is is for five years and $35 million:
Cleveland Cavaliers coach Ty Lue has agreed to a five-year, $35M extension, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 25, 2016
The extension shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Lue was brought in during the middle of the season after the team fired David Blatt, who never appeared to have a good grip on the team. GM David Griffin and the organization took a lot of criticism for the move, but it ultimately paid off.
The story of the initial conversation between Griffin and Lue is pretty great, per Cleveland.com:
In speaking with numerous sources close to “The Call,” cleveland.com learned the details. There were no initial pleasantries. Griffin got right to the point — David Blatt was being relieved of his duties.
Lue’s response was candid and immediate.
“This is f—– up, Griff.”
That didn’t prevent Griffin from calmly asking Lue if he could take over. Hired as the associate head coach a year and a half earlier, becoming the head of a franchise was Lue’s eventual goal. But this didn’t seem right.
Lue pleaded with Griffin, arguing for several minutes that firing Blatt was an excessive move for a team carrying a conference-best 30-11 record. Griffin listened to Lue’s pleas. When they ended, he told Lue the decision has already been carried out.
Griffin circled back to his original question.
“What’s done is done. I’m asking you if you can lead this team?” It had taken a few minutes, but Griffin got the response he sought.
“Yeah, I can f—ing lead this team.”
Griffin then congratulated him.
The chemistry between the players appeared to be a lot better under Lue, who also notably helped lead the Cavaliers back from their 3-1 deficit in The Finals, the only time it has ever been done in the history of the game. It also happened to come against the best regular-season NBA team of all-time.
The move seems very appropriate as the Cavs remain the easy favorites in the Eastern Conference, and as they try to repeat as champions heading into next season.
[Twitter/@WojVerticalNBA/Cleveland.com]
