Heat part-owner: LeBron 'made it clear' he wanted Spoelstra fired

Dan Devine
·Senior NBA writer
This allegedly wasn't enough space for LeBron James' liking.
This allegedly wasn't enough space for LeBron James' liking.

The Cleveland Cavaliers' decision to fire head coach David Blatt despite an 83-40 regular-season record and a trip to the NBA Finals through a year and a half on the bench was seen in some quarters as a referendum on Blatt's inability to connect with franchise cornerstone LeBron James, his failure to hold his star players accountable and earn the respect of the Cavaliers locker room as a whole.

In others, it was seen as the natural conclusion of a "campaign to puncture Blatt's standing," a move borne out of James' desire to exercise the broad power he wields within the Cavaliers organization. NBA.com's David Aldridge reported this week that "one of Blatt's supporters believed that Blatt's firing was '1,000 percent LeBron,'" even if James said he was surprised by the move and Cavaliers general manager David Griffin insisted James didn't direct him to drop the axe.

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Miami Heat limited partner Raanan Katz evidently falls in the latter camp.

Katz — a Florida real estate developer perhaps best known as the man whom a court ruled "cannot stop a woman from running a scathingly critical blog featuring an unflattering photo of him with his tongue protruding askew from his mouth" — appeared on Israeli sports talk radio on Tuesday to take part in a panel discussion on the firing of Blatt, a legendary player and coach in Israel who joined the Cavaliers after leading Maccabi Tel Aviv to the 2014 Euroleague championship. According to another member of the panel, Bleacher Report international basketball insider David Pick, Katz said during the course of that discussion that, during his tenure with the Heat, James attempted to oust head coach Erik Spoelstra on more than one occasion:

On why James left Miami for Cleveland:

"With the Miami Heat, LeBron James — before and after his four seasons when his contract was up with the team — made it clear that he wanted to dump head coach Erik Spoelstra. At one point, [Heat president] Pat Riley called LeBron into his office said that no one will tell him how to run the organization. Riley told James that Spoelstra is his guy, and that firing Spoelstra is out of the question. That was the main reason LeBron returned to Cleveland."

On James influencing Miami front office decisions:

"LeBron screwed us badly, we weren't prepared for his departure from the Miami Heat. We made the wrong decisions because of LeBron James — he told us to draft a point guard [Shabazz Napier] who didn't meet the expectations, but we chose him because that's what LeBron wanted."

James famously tweeted his appreciation for the then-UConn point guard's game during the 2014 NCAA tournament and called Napier "my favorite player in the draft" when Miami swung a trade to import the point guard on the night of the 2014 NBA draft. Mere weeks later, LeBron was heading back to Ohio. The Heat traded Napier to the Orlando Magic this past offseason.

Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald, who covers the Heat now and did so during the Big Three era, suggested exercising some caution in putting too much stock into Katz's commentary on basketball operations-related matters:

(That would be managing general partner Micky Arison, CEO Nick Arison, president Pat Riley, senior vice president of basketball operations/general manager Andy Elisburg and Erik Spoelstra.)

After Pick's report began to gain traction on Tuesday afternoon, Katz offered some "clarification" to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

Miami Heat limited partner Ranaan Katz said Tuesday he has no knowledge of whether LeBron James attempted to get Heat coach Erik Spoelstra fired during James' playing tenure with the Heat. [...]

Reached Tuesday by the Sun Sentinel, Katz said, "That was my opinion. I am very careful with what I say. I have no knowledge of what happened."

A Heat spokesman said before Tuesday night's game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center that there was no such attempt by James. [...]

"The only thing I said to the reporter was, 'It's up to you to figure it out yourself,'" said Katz.

Katz backtracked even further later Tuesday, as the Heat took on the Brooklyn Nets, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald:

If I didn't know better, I'd suspect that maybe Katz wasn't so careful and clear with what he said!

Whether LeBron did or didn't try to get Spoelstra fired multiple times, and whether that does or doesn't have any bearing on the way things unfolded in Cleveland, Blatt sure did get fired, and Spoelstra — like many other NBA coaches — sure didn't think that was warranted, according to Skolnick:

"It's very disturbing for the coaching profession," Spoelstra said. "Look, you have to be able to go through collective adversity and accountability together, for you to make strides, and have breakthroughs in this league. It's really a shame. He had an incredible run, a great record. It just doesn't make any sense to any of the coaches around the league, and hopefully it doesn't make sense to a lot of people in our league."

"Doesn't make a lot of sense" seems to be going around these days.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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