The 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers created history when they defeated the 73-9 Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals. Led by head coach Tyronn Lue, the Cavaliers completed a 3-1 comeback vs. the Warriors.
Lue was a rookie head coach and was signed in the middle of the season. The decision was made following the firing of David Blatt. Joe Vardon of The Athletic wrote in a recent report that LeBron James didn’t even allow Cavaliers players to participate in pregame introductions.
“It was a broken team in the locker room with factions in each corner and James on an island,” Vardon wrote. “James was so tied up in knots through his distrust of Blatt that he wouldn’t allow his teammates to participate in pregame introductions.”
He added: “To fix all of this — to repair the locker room and pave the way for James to assert his dominance in harmony with a deeply talented roster — the Cavs turned to a rookie coach who didn’t want the job and a journeyman/reserve big man who could shoot 3-pointers.”
For what it’s worth, the 2016 Cavaliers were 30-11 under Blatt, but he had lost the locker room despite leading the team to the NBA Finals in 2015. Following Blatt’s firing, Lue was hired as the new head coach of the team.
Under Lue, the Cavs finished with a 27-14 record and an overall 57-25, clinching the first seed in the conference.
Tyronn Lue Was Loved By LeBron James And The Cavaliers
Motivating the players is an important part of any head coach’s job in the NBA. Tyronn Lue certainly mastered it during his rookie season with the Cavaliers.
He found new exciting ways to keep the team’s morale high during the sensational 2016 playoff run. Apart from that, Lue didn’t shy away from being a demanding head coach for James.
So much so that Lue was practically pleading with James to carry the Cavs on his back in the 2016 NBA Finals. James heard his coach’s plead and averaged 29.7 PPG, 11.3 RPG, and 8.9 APG in the series.
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