![David Griffin at a press conference Friday evening [photo: Cleveland Cavaliers]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e70a661/2147483647/strip/true/crop/746x432+0+0/resize/840x486!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fimages%2Fnews%2F2016%2F01%2FGriffin.JPG)
David Blatt, who lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA finals last season, has been fired as head coach. This was his second season with the Cavs. In a written statement, Blatt thanked the team and said he was proud of what they had accomplished. ‘
The Cavs are currently 30 and 11 this season but at a press conference tonight, General Manager David Griffin said, “sometimes you can win games and get worse.” He said the team was regressing over time but Monday’s 34 point loss to the Golden State Warriors wasn’t the final straw.
"This decision was made and wrought out of a lack of connectedness in our team. I witnessed this over the last month or so. I’m measuring more than wins and losses. I’m focusing on a bigger picture in my evaluation. And what I see is we need to build a collective spirit, strength of spirit and a collective will."
Griffin took responsibility for the decision to fire Blatt and says he did not talk to the players -- including LeBron James -- beforehand.
"LeBron plays for this team and he's the leader of this team and he desperately wants to bring a championship to this team. LeBron doesn't run this organization. LeBron is about this organization and he is of this organization and he is of this community. But this narrative that we're somehow taking direction from him, it's just not fair. It's not fair to him in particular but, frankly, it's not fair to me and our group any more."
Griffin said he informed the players today after telling Associate Head Coach Tyronn Lue that Lue would be the new Head Coach.
