| abstract | - David Michael Blatt (born May 22, 1959) is an Israeli-American professional basketball coach, and a former professional basketball player. Most recently, he was the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Blatt played point guard at Princeton University from 1977 to 1981, and played in the Maccabiah Games for the USA national team that won a gold medal in 1981. He then played professional basketball in Israel for nine of the next 12 years, before an injury ended his playing career and he began coaching full-time. He is one of the most successful American coaches in European basketball history. As a coach, Blatt has been the Israeli League Coach of the Year four times (1996, 2002, 2011, and 2014), the Russian Super League Coach of the Year (2005), and the Euroleague Coach of the Year (2014). Blatt took over as Cleveland's head coach and led the team to the 2015 NBA Finals in his first season. However, he was fired mid-season in January 2016
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