Five months ago, there were some who didn't believe David Blatt would last the year in his first season as an NBA head coach.
Fast forward to the present, and Blatt has his team four wins away from the first championship in Cleveland Cavaliers history.
Blatt's authority and job security were called into question a number of times over the course of the season. He was thought to be on thin ice when the Cavs slipped below .500 in January, when reports claimed he'd lost the locker room.
Through it all, LeBron James remained coy when broached about the subject. He never threw his coach under the bus, but he also never wholly endorsed Blatt, who returned to the U.S. with a wildly successful European resume.
On the cusp of the NBA Finals, that endorsement has finally come.
"Well, anytime someone is scrutinized really for nothing, I'm able to relate," James said Monday of Blatt. "For him in this instance, obviously, we knew that a lot of people were going to say things that, you know, didn't mean much, but that's just what they have to do. That's what helps sales. That's the (business).
"People love reading the negative things more than the positive things, so I think he's handled his situation unbelievably. Being a rookie coach in the NBA, being able to take his team to the Finals, I think he's done a hell of a job."
Even as the Cavs surged up the Eastern Conference standings in the second half of the season, Blatt reportedly took a backseat to James when it came to play calling, according to reports. Some still assume he's done for due to his near-disastrous timeout call in the fourth quarter of Cleveland's Game 4 victory in Chicago during the second round.
As for the notion that Blatt isn't getting the credit that James, his teammates, and even general manager David Griffin have received for turning the Cavs around, James doesn't believe it's important to his coach.
"I don't think he cares about that," James said. "It shouldn't matter. Getting credit from other people, who cares? It's all about how we credit each other."
Having James, a now five-time defending Eastern Conference champion, leading your team certainly helps, and Griffin did a marvelous job in acquiring Timofey Mozgov, J.R. Smith, and Iman Shumpert in a pair of season-saving trades in January, but Blatt also deserves his fair share of credit.
While coaches are often criticized for their stubbornness and refusal to adapt, Blatt installed a more conservative defensive scheme to better match his new personnel around the time of the January roster turnover. The results saw Cleveland go from defending at a bottom-five level through mid-January to a top-14 level after Jan. 15.
Despite the success, the 2014 Euroleague champion and Coach of the Year doesn't feel the need to clamor for credit from his erstwhile critics.
"I told somebody recently I'm not a vindictive person," Blatt said Monday. "I don't feel the need for vindication in any way."
