On the morning of Sunday, October 28 it was announced that Tyronn Lue was fired from his position as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. With years of rebuilding on the horizon, he was no longer the right man for the job. He’s received plenty of criticism already, and I see no point in adding to that. Instead, let’s take a few minutes to reflect back on the moments that showed him at his best.

Hired as Associate Head Coach

The story doesn’t begin with his installment as head coach. After Mike Brown was fired in May 2014, Lue became one of two finalists to replace him. However, his competitor, David Blatt, landed the job. Then something unusual happened. Blatt asked Lue to become his lead assistant, the associate head coach. At the time, Lue was an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers under well-respected head coach Doc Rivers. Lue decided to accept the offer, and Blatt had this to say:

“I could not be happier that Ty will be joining the Cavaliers coaching staff as my top assistant. I look forward to leveraging all of his experiences and expertise into our team’s development. This is a character guy and winner himself who played and worked with some of the greatest talents and successful leaders in NBA history. I am thrilled to have him by my side as we get to work in Cleveland.” The dynamic between the two coaches was founded on mutual respect, something that remained evident over the next few years.

Promoted to Head Coach

When David Blatt was fired in January 2016 it became evident that rifts had developed between him and the players, the media, and others associated with the Cavaliers organization. Few people spoke out in support of him, but Lue was one of those few.

When General Manager David Griffin called Lue to inform him of the decision, Lue pleaded with Griffin, arguing for several minutes that firing Blatt was an excessive move for a team carrying a conference-best 30-11 record, per Cleveland.com. When Lue spoke to Blatt shortly thereafter, Blatt told him, “I thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I know you had my back 100 percent.”

At his first press conference as Head Coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lue was asked what he would do “differently” than Blatt, per Dave McMenamin. He replied in this way, “I’m not going to say ‘differently.’ I will say do some things ‘better.'”

That quote was first thought to be a cold indictment of Blatt. Within a week it was evident that Lue meant something different. Brian Windhorst said this on the Lowe Post podcast:

“Ty Lue comes in and one of the first things he says is … ‘We’re gonna run more,'” Windhorst explained.

“And I started talking to people and I heard the Cavs had all these analytics about running more and why they wanted to do it. And so I asked the question, ‘Well, was David Blatt instructed to get the team to run more, and he wasn’t able to do it and that was a reason for his firing?’

“And the answer that I got was: It was David Blatt’s idea.”

The playoff run

A few months later, the playoffs were quickly approaching. Expectations for Lue and the Cavaliers were sky-high. Despite being plagued by injury the year prior they managed to stake out a 2-1 lead on the Golden State Warriors before ultimately being defeated. In 2016 they were healthy entering the playoffs and determined to avenge that loss.

Lue made two bold decisions around this time. Three games before the playoffs began he made a change to the starting lineup, pushing Timofey Mozgov first to the bench, and then out of the rotation entirely. Then, in the second game of the playoffs he unleashed a bench unit that hadn’t played a single minute together during the regular season. Both of these moves proved successful, as the Cavaliers dominated the Eastern Conference. The new bench mob (LeBron James, Matthew Dellavedova, Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye) was +51 in 77 minutes, as an early 2nd quarter run became the norm over the next month and a half.

Around this time, Blatt interviewed with the New York Knicks, and once again Lue showed support for his friend:

“He definitely deserves another chance. I thought Coach Blatt did a great and phenomenal job here. He taught me a lot. Just being friends with him and getting a chance to understand him was great for me. I know a lot of guys around here, we talked about it the other day, they miss him and his presence. I would just like keep in contact with him. Hopefully, he gets another job in this league because he deserves it.”

Preparing for a defining moment

Looking back on Lue’s journey to the 2016 NBA Finals helps us appreciate what equipped him for a career-defining moment. He accepted a job lower than the one he interviewed for, working for and establishing a friendship with the man who beat him out for the head coaching job. When Blatt was fired, his initial reaction was to battle for his friend and try to change Griffin’s mind. When that failed, he made an effort to implement Blatt’s ideas.

The reason I’ve focused so much on this dynamic between Blatt and Lue is that it illustrates the type of person Lue is. He is not driven by ego or ambition. He looks past the flaws of an individual and focuses on their best qualities. This allows him to connect deeply to his team and his staff, since they know that he appreciates them and is looking out for their best interests.

These deep connections he forged with his team gave him freeness of speech with them, something he used to great effect when their season was on the line.

Game 7

“Bron, you’ve got to be better than this,”

Per Lee Jenkins:

With 2 minutes and 27 seconds left in the first half of Game 7 and the Cavaliers trailing the Warriors by three points, Tyronn Lue called timeout. “Bron, you’ve got to be better than this,” the Cavs coach implored.

…

“Stop being so passive!” the coach barked. “Stop turning the ball over! And guard Draymond!” James’s numbers looked fine—12 points, seven rebounds, five assists—but he had unleashed a few sloppy passes and Draymond Green, his primary assignment, was 5 for 5 from three-point range. “Bron was mad, pissed off at me, and then we went into the locker room at halftime and I told him the same thing in front of all the guys,” Lue recalls. “He was mad again, pissed off again.”

…

Lue, ducking in and out of a back office, kept an eye on LeBron. “He stormed out of the locker room,” Lue says. The coach laughs as he tells the story. “I didn’t really think he was playing that bad,” Lue admits. “But I used to work for Doc Rivers in Boston, and he told me, ‘I never want to go into a Game 7 when the best player is on the other team.’ We had the best player. We needed him to be his best. I know he might have been tired, but f— that. We had to ride him. And he had to take us home.”

Not many people can stand up to LeBron James in that way. When it mattered most, however, Lue proved he could. In doing so, he proved to be an integral part of the only championship in Cavaliers franchise history. Although it was the right time for the franchise to part ways with him, he played a vital role in the best era of basketball the city of Cleveland has ever experienced. For that, I’ll always be appreciative.

Image by Aidan Lising