Long before he arrived in Cleveland, David Blatt was familiar with the all-consuming expectations that fall on the coach of a title favorite. He's learned firsthand that the circus is always looking to ride into town and derail it all.
"People in the States that don't know the history think David was this revered legend who won all these championships here and that he's not used to being under fire," A.J. Mitnick, an assistant coach for Bnei Herzliya, told SB Nation. "They don't realize how it is here."
Here is Israel, home to some of the most rabid basketball fans in the world. Blatt coached there for 16 years (1993-2005 and 2010-14). He spent his last four as the head coach of league superpower Maccabi Tel-Aviv before being hired by the Cavaliers last June.
There he was exposed to nearly every form of the madness he would experience during his first season in the NBA. Losing streaks were met with calls for his head, and perhaps some stray objects tossed down at it from the stands, too. The chaos was constant. Think of Maccabi Tel-Aviv as the Yankees of Israeli basketball. They have more money than everyone else and win more than everyone else. Or, at least they're supposed to.
But nine years had gone by since the club's last Euroleague title and the country was getting restless. Blatt had led Maccabi to Israeli Cup and League titles, but that wasn't enough to satisfy the fanbase's thirst. Then came a season-ending injury to the 6'10 Shawn James, one of the team's top big men, and six losses in 10 games.
The criticisms lobbed at Blatt then will sound familiar to NBA fans. He was too arrogant. He was a foreigner from Massachusetts who didn't have a strong grasp of the country's unique culture. He didn't know how to adjust. It's here that you see why Blatt has been defensive about the notion he's a rookie coach.
"I remember following the stuff with the Cavs, laughing to myself thinking, 'Here we are in December and everyone wants to fire David,'" Mitnick said. "It was the same pattern just repeating itself."
With his starting center out, Blatt reconfigured his Maccabi team on the fly. He decided to play small with four wing players on the court at the same time. Quick three-pointers in transition were encouraged. Convention was ignored.
Not a single Maccabi player was named to the Euroleague's First-Team. And yet, Blatt and Maccabi still manage to knock off the heavily-favored CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid in the Euroleague Final Four and return to Israel as Euroleague champs.
"We didn't have any stars on our team," says Maccabi Tel-Aviv chairman Shimon Mizrahi. "David just knew how to get the best out of our players and how to prepare those players. He knows what he wants to see on the floor and how to make it happen."
A year later and an ocean away, Blatt is following a similar script. Yes, the miraculous play of LeBron James is the primary reason why the depleted Cavaliers find themselves tied at two in the NBA Finals with the loaded Golden State Warriors.
But if you take a deeper look, you can see Blatt's imprints all over the series. For the first time all season, the normally up-tempo Warriors have looked sluggish and perplexed. Stephen Curry, the league MVP and a player who typically makes scoring look easy, has struggled just to find open shots.
In order to salvage their season in Game 4, the Warriors had to completely overhaul the lineup they rode to a 67-win season. The Cavaliers are not the first team this season to shadow Curry and attempt to drag the Warriors into the mud, but they are among the first to do so successfully for multiple games.
"David's great at targeting an opponent's best player and limiting his ability to create," says Ricky Hickman, a Maccabi Tel-Aviv guard who played two seasons for Blatt and was a part of the 2014 Euroleague championship team. "He'll design schemes around hounding him, being aggressive and making him uncomfortable. We did it last year [in the Euroleague Final Four]."
"He's not the kind of coach who says, 'I have my principles and system and so that's how I'm going to play no matter what,'" Mitnick adds. "He loves to take away an opponent's strength."
Hickman and Mitnick say they see some similarities between this current Cavaliers team and Blatt's groups of the past. Some of the quick-hitting plays are the same, says Hickman. Both say the constant switches, the pick-and-roll traps and the exaggerated weakside help were also techniques Blatt frequently deployed in Israel.
The Cavaliers' defense might be designed by associate head coach Tyronn Lue, but it's Blatt who gets the final say. There are also those within the Cavaliers organization who point out that Blatt deserves credit for hiring and then entrusting Lue, the man he beat out for the head job. Blatt's willingness to rely on the expertise of others was crucial for a team that has essentially undergone three makeovers since training camp.
Of course, a game plan becomes irrelevant the moment players stop executing. It’s here where those who’ve played for Blatt in the past say he’s most valuable.
"He’s really good with people," says former Duke basketball player Jon Scheyer, who played for Blatt one season on Maccabi Tel-Aviv. "I think that’s one of the similarities that he and [Mike Krzyzewski] have. He treats everyone really well and coaches everyone the same."
Now Blatt stands just two wins shy of leading yet another discounted team to a shocking title. If his team pulls it off, he'll become the first "rookie" coach to win a championship and the first coach in history to triumph in Euroleague and the NBA.
"He still feels like he has something to prove," Hickman says. "Wherever he's been, no matter how good his teams have been, he's never been viewed as the best coach."