When LeBron came back to Cleveland in July of 2015, it took 3 months for him to make time to meet his new coach. And things apparently went downhill from there. There has always been all kinds of conjecture about the relationship between David Blatt and The King.
One thing we know for sure is that LeBron did not verbally give his support to his then coach. When Blatt was unceremoniously fired with a 30-11 record, LBJ said he didn’t do anything to cause that response.
But he didn’t do anything to NOT cause that outcome.
On the eve of the 2016 Finals LeBron was asked about his coach. He talked about LOVE, LOVE! AND not as in K-Love. He gave Coach Lue 150% support in his ability to coach the play-offs.
One tenth. Just one-tenth of that support would have been nice for Blatt who took a team without 2 ALL-STARS to Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
In communication we say that visual beats verbal. The visual of LeBron IGNORING Blatt on the sidelines was pretty powerful. But so were the lack of words of support to his then head coach. The silence was deafening.
He’s our coach and we love him,” James said Friday. “We trust the system that he’s put in; we trust the process that he’s put in, and the game plan going into Sunday we trust.”
Just one or two of those words would have been so appreciated a year ago by the then rookie coach.
Maybe the next time we wonder if we should say something, we can remember how important those words could have been to a now temporarily unemployed coach.
