Former Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt has accepted a consultant role with the New York Knicks.
Blatt, who had a lengthy coaching career overseas and coached the Cavs in 2014-15 and half of the 2015-16 season, will become a basketball operations consultant for the team.
“I look forward to my next step in my career as I officially retire from coaching and pursue other opportunities in basketball,” Blatt said in a statement released by the Knicks. “I’ve long been intrigued by working in a front office and thank [Knicks president] Steve [Mills] and [Knicks general manager] Scott [Perry] for the opportunity to be a resource to the basketball operations staff.”
Blatt and Mills played together at Princeton University and have remained friends through the years.
NY Knicks announce the hiring of David Blatt as a basketball operations consultant. pic.twitter.com/m8eHSASaQH
— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) December 18, 2019
Steve Mills and David Blatt are great friends dating back to their days playing for Princeton University. https://t.co/mIaVwqWLhs
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) December 18, 2019
As coach of the Cavs, Blatt led the team to the 2015 Finals, where it lost 4-1 to the Golden State Warriors. Despite a 30-11 start in 2015-16, Blatt was fired and replaced by Tyronn Lue.
In April, Blatt was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He had served as coach of the Greek team Olympiakos since June of 2018. Blatt’s name surfaced as a possible candidate for the Milwaukee Bucks’ coaching vacancy in 2018, but the team ultimately hired Mike Budenholzer for that role.
