David Blatt

Medal record
David Blatt
Competitor for United States
Basketball
Maccabiah Games
Gold	1981 Maccabiah	Basketball

David Blatt (Hebrew: דייוויד בלאט‎; born May 22, 1959, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American-Israeli professional basketball coach, and a former professional basketball player. Today, Blatt is one of the most successful American coaches in European basketball, and is currently the head coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Russia national basketball team.

Playing career

Blatt, a point guard, played college basketball at Princeton University from 1977 to 1981, under coach Pete Carril with the Princeton Tigers. He also participated in the Maccabiah Games as part of the USA national team that won a gold medal in 1981.

After competing in the Maccabiah Games, Blatt decided to abandon his American career and began to play basketball in Israel's Super League.

Teams

• 1973–77 Framingham South High School
• 1977–81 Princeton University
• 1981–84 Maccabi Haifa
• 1984–86 Basketball in the USA
• 1986–87 Hapoel Jerusalem
• 1987–88 Maccabi Natanya
• 1988–89 Basketball in Elitzor Natanya (also girls' team coach)
• 1989–90 Hapoel Galil Elyon, also youth team coach
• 1990–91 Hapoel Jerusalem
• 1991–92 Ironi Nahariya (also youth club head coach)
• 1992–93 Maccabi Hederra (was injured and retired)

Coaching career

After retiring from basketball as a player, Blatt became assistant manager for Hapoel Galil Elyon, coaching them for the 1993–94 season. In the middle of the season, the head coach was sacked and he took his place. Next, he became Pini Gershon's assistant in the 1994–95 season. In the following year, he won the title of Israeli "Coach of the Year" (1996) and in 1997, he continued coaching at Hapoel Galil Elyon, whilst also becoming the assistant coach of the Israeli National Team.

Blatt returned to coach Galil Elyon and remained assistant manager of the Israeli National Team for the next 2 years (1997–99).

For the 1999–00 season, he moved to Maccabi Tel Aviv and once again served as assistant manager to Pini Gershon. During this season, his team took part in the Israeli League and Israeli Cup (won both) and also in the Euroleague, where Maccabi finished in 2nd place.

In the years between 2000–2004, he continued as assistant coach under Pini Gershon and actively recruited foreign players such as Anthony Parker (in 2000) and Maceo Baston to the team. During those 4 years, Maccabi won 1 Euroleague title, reached the Euroleague Final Four (2001–02 season), and reached the final stage of the Adriatic League. Maccabi won the SuproLeague title in 2001, which was held in Paris. Blatt was still working as assistant coach of the Israeli National Team in 2002, when he won the title of Israeli "Coach of the Year" for the second time, the year he was appointed head coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Despite two years as head coach with all possible domestic titles and one Euroleauge Final Four appearance, for the 2003–04 season, he agreed to be demoted to assistant coach once again when Pini Gershon came back to the head coach position. Together, they led one of the best teams in Maccabi Tel Aviv history, and the history of European basketball, to another Euroleague title with a 44-point win in the final, as well as the Israeli Championship and the Israeli Cup.

In 2004, he moved to Russia and signed on as head coach with Dynamo Saint Petersburg. During this year, he won the FIBA EuroCup championship with Dynamo and also the title of "Coach of the Year in Russia" (2004–05 season).

For the 2005–06 season, he signed on as head coach of the Israeli national basketball team, but his appointment fell through due to the lack of a formal coaching certificate. He left Israel to become head coach of Benetton Treviso of the Italian League, and subsequently led them to the Italian Championship through a 3–1 victory in the final series of the Italian playoffs. In the same year, he was also appointed the head coach of the Russian national basketball team.

Blatt was also the head coach of the Istanbul-based Turkish Basketball League team Efes Pilsen, however, he parted ways with the team on April 6, 2008. Blatt has also coached the Russian national basketball team, with which he won the EuroBasket 2007 (the FIBA European national teams championship) in a final against the reigning world champions, and home team of Spain, by a score of 60–59.^{[1] [2]}

In 2008, with Ettore Messina then announcing that he would leave CSKA Moscow, Blatt was considered to be the favorite to replace him, but Messina eventually stayed on as CSKA's coach and Blatt agreed to the offer to become the head coach of Dynamo Moscow instead.^[3] In early 2010, Blatt served a stint as the head coach of the Greek League club Aris Thessaloniki, before moving on to coach Maccabi.^[4]

See also

• List of select Jewish basketball players

References

1. ^ In his first year on the job, head coach David Blatt reinstates Russia as a European basketball powerhouse. Moscow News Weekly
2. ^ "David Blatt Profile at Eurobasket". Eurobasket.com. http://www.eurobasket.com/coach.asp?Cntry=TUR&CoachID=3992. Retrieved January 10, 2011. 
3. ^ "Dinamo Moscow inks David Blatt". Dynamobasket.com. http://www.dynamobasket.com/en/articles.php?articles_type=1&aID=532&cID=52. Retrieved January 10, 2011. 
4. ^ "Aris makes David Blatt head coach". Eurocupbasketball.com. January 15, 2010. http://www.eurocupbasketball.com/ulebcup/home/news/i/65356/3735/aris-makes-david-blatt-head-coach. Retrieved January 10, 2011. 

External links

• Euroleague.net Coaching Profile
• Eurocup Coaching Profile

Sporting positions
Preceded by Panagiotis Giannakis	EuroBasket Winning Coach 2007	Succeeded by Sergio Scariolo

Persondata
Name	Blatt, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 22, 1959
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death