By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
While David Blatt was reportedly interviewed by various NBA teams this summer, including the New York Knicks and the Milwaukee Bucks, he ultimately returned to EuroLeague by signing with three-time continental champion Olympiacos Piraeus.
Blatt will thus continue in Europe, a place where he considers that pressure load for a coach is more intense than in the NBA. “I think that the pressure in Europe is much more immediate and uncompromising than in NBA teams,” Blatt said in an interview with Israeli website Ynet.
Blatt proceeded to talk about the similarities but mainly the differences of being a coach in the NBA and in Europe.
“Depending on what kind of team you have, if you have a group of stars, especially big ones, then the expectations are the same. But if that’s not the case, expectations are completely different. I was on a different scale in Cleveland, expectations were immediate. There are teams in the NBA who want to lose to build for the future. You can lose 80 percent of your games and nothing happens. Unfortunately, the status of the coach in Israel and almost everywhere in Europe is “poor” and I am actually the one who was “burned” there (NBA) more than here (Europe).”