Lowell Cohn: Warriors' way completely foreign to Cavaliers

The Warriors are better guys than the Cleveland Cavaliers. And Stephen Curry is a better man than LeBron James.

Bottom line.

The Cavaliers fired coach David Blatt on Friday because the players - notably James - undermined him. Disrespected their leader. Palace coup. Shame on LeBron James. Shame on the whole bunch.

When he got dismissed, Blatt’s Cavs had a 30-11 record, a fabulous .732 winning percentage, one of the best in the league, and were in first place in the Central Division. He got Cleveland to the NBA Finals last season against the Warriors despite not having power forward Kevin Love. Won two games against the Warriors. His record in the NBA is 83-40. Exemplary.

It is an indictment of the Cavaliers players that they didn’t like or respect Blatt. That this firing became necessary. And maybe it was. I don’t know. I don’t cover the Cavs and their rotten situation.

I cover the Warriors. Thank God for the Golden State Warriors.

Stephen Curry is a better man than LeBron James. Better player, too.

The Cavs players didn’t respect Blatt, I have read, because he did not play in the NBA. Had the nerve to make his bones as a coach overseas. Expected respect from the players from the get-go. Apparently, a silly and quaint notion in the player-driven NBA.

It got so bad James overruled Blatt’s play calls in front of the players. Took himself out of games when he wanted. Put himself in games when he felt like it. Ran the team. Was the de facto coach. Probably the de facto general manager.

Was so into the management side of things, he wanted Mark Jackson as the coach. This I have read. Mark Jackson, the egomaniacal, inflexible coach who got run out of here because he couldn’t get along with anybody. I once asked a respected former NBA coach about Jackson’s offense and this coach laughed and laughed over the phone. Just laughed. Joke offense.

This is the man James wanted for Cleveland. Advice to LeBron James: Just be a player, LeBron. Reel in your ego. Work on your game. Improve your 3-point shooting and your free-throw shooting. Or is it heresy to write that?

In my world - perhaps a world that no longer exists - the coach gets respect by being the coach. Simple as that. Players play hard for him because he’s the coach.

Steve Kerr, who is a great coach, has advantages over Blatt. He played in the league and that brings credibility from the players. Kerr also is brilliant and charming and strong. He is a leader. And he has one other advantage over Blatt.

He works for the Warriors where GM Bob Myers selects the players for character, among other things. Of course, the players have to be good at their jobs. But it was no mistake Myers drafted Draymond Green, a better deep-down teammate, I believe, than James. When you think of Warriors players you think character - Andre Iguodala, Festus Ezeli, Harrison Barnes. I could go on.

The Warriors superstar, Curry, is normal. Talks like a human being. One of the guys. Doesn’t need people to kiss his sneakers. Doesn’t need to call the plays.

When Kerr got ill and missed half the season, no one on the Warriors forgot about him and devalued him or talked trash about him. Or wanted him out. Everyone waited for him. Luke Walton, the interim coach, waited like a good soldier. Did not initiate a back-room power play to become coach.

Everything in its rightful place. Everything in order. The Warriors’ world an orderly place.

Can you imagine the Cavs if Blatt began the season with a leaky spine, began with a leave of absence? He would have been out then and there. Tyronn Lue, the No. 1 assistant who got Blatt’s job and didn’t appear particularly loyal to Blatt, would have orchestrated Blatt’s demise. This I believe. And James would have helped him. This I also believe.

A note on Lue: After he took Blatt’s job, media asked what he would do differently from Blatt. Get this. “I wouldn’t say ‘differently.’ I would say ‘better.’?”

In Brooklyn we called a guy like that a schmuck. Loosely translated as a fool - but worse.

So, that’s the kind of guy you are, Tyronn. Dancing on the other guy’s grave. No respect. Not a gentleman. And while you’re at it, do better than Blatt, Tyronn. Let’s see you do it.

The Warriors and Cavs are the difference between professional and unprofessional, grownup and childish, ethical - oh, what the hell, you get the idea.

My gripe - and it sure is a gripe - extends to much of the NBA, the only league where players run the show. Where the coach has to please the players. Where players - especially stars - have power to dump a coach.

This does not happen in the NFL. Bill Belichick never played in the NFL. He gets respect. Same goes for baseball managers. Tony La Russa barely had a major-league career. Players respected him.

The NBA is an upside-down world where the players run the team lots of the time. A current coach once had a famous point guard. According to someone with inside knowledge, this coach never could correct his point guard in front of the players. The coach could correct the player privately, but only a few times a season.

Bill Walsh, who never played in the NFL, corrected Joe Montana all the time. I saw him do it.

I like a world of absolutes, a world where the leader is the leader, and players fall in line behind him because they respect the position of leader. The Warriors represent the best world of absolute values - loyalty, good teammate, sportsmanship.

Thank God for the Golden State Warriors.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.