Heat minority owner believes LeBron wanted Spoelstra out, like Blatt
When LeBron James first got to Miami in 2010, things weren't as dandy as they turned out in the long run. The Heat started off the season 9-8, and many questioned if the Big Three of LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh could play together.
Obviously, they could. The trio went to four Finals in as many years, winning two of them. James speaks highly of coach Erik Spoelstra now, but there was a time not too long ago when people were questioning Spoelstra as much or more than they were questioning LBJ.
On the tails of David Blatt's firing in Cleveland, Heat part-owner Raanan Katz says that James was actually part of that crowd, via Bleacher Report:
With the Miami Heat, LeBron James—before and after his four seasons when his contract was up with the team—made it clear that he wanted to dump head coach Erik Spoelstra. [..]
In a follow-up interview, Katz emphasized he did not say James had Blatt fired, just that he's reading between the lines.
"I didn't hear what LeBron and Griffin spoke of, but you can read between the lines," he said.
That's quite the indictment of James, whose rumored clashing with Blatt is a reported reason for the Cavaliers ousting their coach before this past weekend. As Adrian Wojnarowki of Yahoo! Sports has reported in detail, this stems a whole lot deeper than just personal disagreements. It digs into representation and business as much as anything else.
And it's just one man's opinion, as Katz clarified after his comment gained traction (via Sun-Sentinel):
Reached Tuesday by the Sun Sentinel, Katz said, "That was my opinion. I am very careful with what I say. I have no knowledge of what happened."
Katz then backtracked even further as the Heat faced the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night:
At that point, there's some definite splitting of hairs going on between actively trying to get a guy fired and making one's preferences known.
James has proven to be a businessman over time — whether through the way he negotiates one-year deals, through his unprecedented shoe contract or through any other monetary avenues he takes. And as Wojnarowski wrote, part of the reason he went to Cleveland during the summer of 2014 was so that he could have more control over the organization than in Miami. To whatever degree Katz is right, it would lend credence to that theory.
