NBA Finals Overshadowed
While LeBron James is hailed for the Cavs’ turnaround this season, David Blatt gets little praise for guiding the team’s playoff run
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Blanton Collier, the last coach to lead a pro team in Cleveland to a championship, struggled with such an acute hearing problem it contributed to his career ending six years after he won the 1964 NFL title with the Browns.
David Blatt doesn’t seem to hear well, either, at least not any of the doubt surrounding him despite the Cavaliers coach taking Cleveland to the cusp of the city’s first championship in 51 years.
Tuning out noise is a necessary survival skill when you’re a firstyear NBA coach of a team built around LeBron James.
James is King of Cleveland, where he spent his first seven NBA seasons and returned last summer after four years and two titles in Miami. The cover of the latest Sports Illustrated affirms such royal status, showing him dunking under the banner headline “My Town, My Team.”
While James often sprinkles
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football,” said Blatter, who could still be a target of U.S. investigators delving into decades of corruption and bribery accusations against FIFA officials.
The announcement left FIFA without a leader and without a clear course forward. It sets off a power struggle for control of the organization as a criminal investigation intensifies.
A strained and serious Blatter read a six-minute statement in French before exiting without taking questions.
Blatter had been defiant and feisty in the same room on Saturday, fending off questions about FIFA’s battered reputation and the chance he could be arrested.
His mood had changed in the 24 hours before his announcement, longtime Blatter aide Walter Gagg said.
A federal indictment last week detailed apparent bribes from a FIFA account totaling $10 million to senior officials for voting South Africa as the 2010 World Cup host. Late Monday, reports laid a clearer trail of complicity to the door of FIFA headquarters, if not Blatter himself.
“We know that in the last 48 hours he was thinking of the future, and perhaps what happened in the last hours, this gave him the conviction,” Gagg said. “We had lunch with him yesterday (Monday). He was relaxed, he was fine. I had a very good meeting with him early in the morning (on Tuesday). Then came the different information from the U.S. with this and that.”
Indeed, Blatter’s vigor in acclaiming his election victory — a 133-73 win over Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan — had evaporated by Tuesday.
“This mandate does not seem to be supported by everybody in the world of football,” said Blatter, who added that he “will continue to exercise my function” until a new election is held, likely between December and March.
U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati lauded Blatter for stepping down, saying it “represents an exceptional and immediate opportunity for positive change within FIFA. I commend him for making a decision that puts FIFA and the sport we love above all other interests.”
Michel Platini, the president of European body UEFA, had called for Blatter’s resignation last week before the vote. On Tuesday, he praised Blatter’s decision to go. “It was a difficult decision, a brave decision and the right decision,” Platini said.
Former Brazil great Romario was less diplomatic about Blatter’s departure.
“His fall will come as a tsunami to every corrupt leader in the confederations around the world. … We need the corrupt ones in prison, and we need the contributions from great idols, good sports leaders and football lovers.”
The Justice Department said on Tuesday that it would have no comment on Blatter’s announcement. The Swiss attorney general said Blatter was not under investigation in Switzerland, but authorities said last week that they have opened a criminal probe into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding votes.
Blatter’s pending departure will see 2018 World Cup host Russia lose a strong ally, and could cause unease in Qatar, the host of the 2022 tournament.
The consequences of those World Cup hosting votes in December 2010 defined Blatter’s last full term in office, and a new president might want to re-examine the decisions.