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Princeton University Athletics
Blatt '81 Guides Cleveland Cavaliers to NBA Finals
May 28, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Last summer, David Blatt '81 joined Butch van Breda Kolff '45 as the only two Princeton alums to serve as head coach of an NBA team, and now Blatt has joined van Breda Kolff as the second Princeton alum to coach a team to the NBA Finals.
Blatt's Cleveland Cavaliers closed out the Atlanta Hawks on May 26, and the following night, another rookie head coach, Golden State's Steve Kerr, helped his team to the NBA's Western Conference title, setting up the first meeting between two first-year NBA head coaches in Finals history when the last round begins June 4 in Oakland, California.
While Blatt is a rookie as far as NBA head coaching, he's far from it overall, having been a head coach overseas for most of the last 20-plus years after a playing career of more than 10 seasons, mostly in Israel. While at Princeton, Blatt helped the Tigers to the Ivy League title as a senior in 1981.
He was named head coach of the Cavaliers on June 20, 2014, and after a 53-win season, the sixth-most in Cleveland's 45-season history, the team has gone 12-2 in the playoffs to reach the NBA Finals for the second time in franchise history and first since 2007.
While Blatt and van Breda Kolff each have reached the NBA Finals as head coaches, Blatt can still accomplish what van Breda Kolff narrowly missed in each of his two seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers. Though van Breda Kolff, who coached Princeton to the 1965 Final Four, reached the NBA Finals in 1968 and 1969, the Boston Celtics were just two games better in '68, winning the Finals 4-2, before needing a seventh game to win the NBA title in '69.