National Basketball Association

Jubilant Blatt grateful to get to coach LeBron

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:05 p.m. ET

foxsports

LAS VEGAS -- The Cleveland Cavaliers were going through one final practice before their NBA Las Vegas Summer League debut Friday morning when a bit of news was passed along.

"We were in the middle of practice and someone let out a shriek," new Cavaliers coach David Blatt said. "I understood it wasn't because of the weather."

It was because the team had just been informed that LeBron James had decided to return to Cleveland.

LeBron Shrieking James.

The four-time NBA MVP is returning to Cleveland after four years and two championships with the Miami Heat. The news was presented to the world Friday via a heartfelt essay on Sports Illustrated's website. It was passed to Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert by Rich Paul, James' agent, and then through the organization by the aforementioned shriek.

David Blatt coached the Cavaliers for the first time on Friday in an NBA Summer League Game in Las Vegas.

In the last three weeks, Blatt has picked up his first NBA coaching gig and probably the league's most dominant player.

"To say that I'm excited and happy would probably qualify as one of the great understatements of the millennium," Blatt said.

Blatt coached his first summer league later on Friday in jeans and sneakers. The Cavaliers won, too.

As if anyone cared. The addition of James changes the entire direction -- and the goals.

"Having the opportunity to coach the best player in the world is the type of blessing I would wish for anyone," Blatt said. "Because of the type of player he is and the type of man he is, our team will be better for it in every respect.

"Did I think we might get LeBron before I took the job? That's a fair question, but no, I didn't see this coming down the road and it was not a condition.

"Like everyone else ... the Cleveland Cavaliers and the state of Ohio, we were all hoping very much."

Blatt, 55, won several European titles while coaching in Israel and guided Russia to a bronze medal at the London Olympics two years ago. He's a native of Boston and a Princeton graduate who's back in the United States for the first time in 30 years.

He's getting quite the crash course in NBA life, now coaching a team that has four former No. 1 overall picks on the roster: James (2003), Kyrie Irving (2011), Anthony Bennett (2013) and Andrew Wiggins, selected last month, the day after Blatt was formally introduced.

In addition to dealing with Friday's news, the emotion of it and the planning for the next step, Blatt was part of an NBA oddity Friday -- and a necessity. Scotty Hopson played 14:25 and scored 7 points for the Cavaliers in the first half of their summer league game vs. the Milwaukee Bucks, then Hopson was informed at halftime he's being traded to the Charlotte Hornets in a deal that will be finalized later and help the Cavaliers in regards to the salary cap and the official signing of James.

Blatt said he's met James twice before, at the Olympics in Beijing and again in London, but has not yet talked with him about where the two go from here.

On Friday, he was too busy smiling to think too much about next week.

"Now I'm back in America where I belong," Blatt said, "and I'm happy to coach a guy like that."