North: Blatt firing won't win Cavs a championship
I enjoyed the AFC and NFC championship games this weekend, and congratulate the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers on their victories as they prepare for the 50th Super Bowl.
The NFL is a strong league, but I consider the NBA the best-run league. They stole the pregame thunder from Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, and certainly from Arizona and Carolina, with the firing of Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt.
It seems the Cavs always have a problem and look for a scapegoat for their failings.
I can't help but see the similarity between Blatt and Erik Spoelstra. Blatt might have been on track to be like Spoelstra, who, after losing in the finals in his first year coaching LeBron James in Miami, won the championship in his sophomore year.
It would have been like the General Manager of the Heat, Pat Riley, firing Spoelstra in his second year. Couldn't the script have been the same in Cleveland?
We'll never know now, as GM David Griffin fired Blatt and replaced him with player favorite Tyronn Lue, who was thoroughly out-coached in his first game by Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg.
Now, the story goes Griffin didn't like the tone of the locker room and based his decision on that. The story continues as James claims he was "surprised and caught off-guard" by the move.
I guess it had nothing to do with James sitting in the coaching chair next to Lue in the game against Golden State, filling his ears with things that needed to change.
James can't switch teams again, at least not yet, so he switched to his sixth coach. The James ball washers at ESPN ran a crawl all weekend saying LeBron didn't know - well, hook up the lie detector test!
Maybe he didn't know when, but I seriously doubt he hadn't given his blessing at some point.
Now we are hearing the team is not in shape for the run game. How well did that work for the Bulls in their 125-94 loss against Golden State the other night? The run game that works so well for Golden State is a death knell for other teams.
Cleveland is also worried about teams like the Bulls, who are 6-2 against the league's top four teams, and the Toronto Raptors, who are emerging in the East with a 29-15 record not far behind the Cavs at 30-12.
Winning the east isn't a given for the Cavs, and winning the whole enchilada is even further off. If it doesn't happen, James has his fingerprints all over it. Of course, most of the media won't blame him. That will fall to Kevin Love, Griffin, Lue, or a host of others.
When will it be LeBron's turn?
Program notes:
Follow me on Twitter@ north2north, and listen to Fox Sports Daybreak with Andy Furman and myself from 5-8 a.m. Monday through Friday on Fox Sports radio, and check me out on iHeart radio or Foxsportsradio.com. Listen to my postgame Bears show on The Drive 97.1-FM every Sunday.
• North's column appears each Tuesday and Friday in the Daily Herald, and his video commentary can be found Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at dailyherald.com. For more, visit northtonorth.com.