LeBron James‘ remarkable buzzer-beater yesterday against the Chicago Bulls may have saved the Cleveland Cavaliers’ title hopes. The heroic effort is yet another example of James’ greatness that people will willfully ignore. Never mind the fact that he overcame a brutal looking ankle injury to even be in that position.
It won’t matter. There’s literally nothing he can do to win a certain stubborn faction of the public over.
But this post isn’t about James. It’s about his coach, David Blatt, who tried as hard as he could to blow the game for the Cavs.
After the Bulls knotted things up at 84-84, Blatt tried to call a timeout even though Cleveland had zero remaining. That, of course, is a technical foul. One of his assistants — who was, you know, paying attention — stepped in to save Blatt from a Chris Webber moment.
In the postgame, Blatt admitted that he’d almost blown it.
If that wasn’t bad enough, given a reprieve and a free stoppage in play as officials checked the game clock, Blatt had his All-Everything player inbounding the basketball instead of shooting it on the final possession.
LeBron James says David Blatt wanted him to inbound the ball on final play, he “scratched” the play and called for the ball.
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) May 10, 2015
So those rumors about James actually coaching the team appear to have some validity. And, knowing what we know now of Blatt’s missing clutch gene, that’s probably a good thing.
It has to be rough for Bulls fans to read this knowing they were beaten by a team with a coach actively trying to sabotage the moment.
[H/T: The Sporting News]