Brendan Haywood Exposes Loss of Respect for Blatt
Following the announcement of Blatt’s firing, one of the most telling reports came in the form of Brendan Haywood who discussed the lack of respect that the coach had of the team.
In an interview with SiriusXM NBA, Haywood discussed Blatt’s refusal to criticize LeBron and the domino effect of losing the respect of the team. In particular, Blatt’s treatment of James during film sessions has come to light. According to Haywood, via NBA.com:
"“I remember we had James Jones [talk] to Coach about how, ‘Hey, you can’t just skip over when LeBron James makes a mistake in the film room.’ Because we all see it. And we’re like, ‘Hey, you didn’t say anything about that. You’re going to correct when Matthew Dellavedova‘s not in the right spot. You’re going to say something when Tristan Thompson‘s not in the right spot. Well, we see a fast break and LeBron didn’t get back on defense or there’s a rotation and he’s supposed to be there, and you just keep rolling the film and the whole room is quiet.’ We see that as players. That’s when … as a player, you start to lose respect for a coach.”"
There have been further reports about how Blatt would call even the most simple fouls in favor of James, Irving, and Love in practice.
The lack of respect led to assistant coach Tyronn Lue being the middle-man whenever a player had a larger issue with the team. Which leads to…
Next: Lue in the Right Place at the Right Time