The Cleveland Cavaliers made a decision last week to fire head coach David Blatt despite the fact that they are in first place in the Eastern Conference and are coming off an NBA Finals appearance last season. When the firing was made a lot of people assumed that LeBron James was part of that decision because it is assumed he has a hand in all of the moves made. Reports suggest LeBron was not involved in the Blatt decision but he has had his issues with coaches. LeBron wanted Erik Spoelstra fired by the Miami Heat back when he was there and when he wasn't LeBron decided to return to Cleveland, according to David Pick of Bleacher Report.
Heat minority owner Raanan Katz was on a radio show when he reported that James "made it clear" that he wanted Spoelstra fired. Katz did not go as far as to say that James was the reason Blatt was fired but he did say he thinks he had something to do with it because of his track record. Since Katz made these statements on the radio show several Heat beat writers have come out and vehemently disagreed with what he said including Dan Le Batard. Le Batard said that what Katz was saying is "total nonsense" and that he has "next to zero contact with anyone on the team."
At this point it is hard to know who to believe but LeBron does have a history of a lot of coaching changes on his teams despite the fact that his teams are always very good. LeBron is in his ninth season in Cleveland and Tyronn Lue is now his fifth head coach in those nine years. LeBron himself has denied the report that he tried to get Spoelstra fired and has also said "it sucks" that he is being labeled a coach killer, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Regardless of whether LeBron tried to get Spoelstra fired in Miami it was never going to happen because Pat Riley doesn't let anyone tell him what to do. On top of that Spoelstra is Riley's guy so he wasn't going to let go of him just because one player was unhappy. It is more believable that James had a hand in Blatt's firing because of his pull with the Cavaliers organization. At this point there seems to be overwhelming evidence that LeBron didn't try to get Spoelstra fired but the amount of different coaches he has had in Cleveland is strange considering the success they typically have so there may be something to that.
