By Michael C. Butz, The Cleveland Jewish News
David Blatt, The Cavaliers’ new head coach, knows what he wants as he begins to learn about Cleveland, and he doesn’t want to be hungry.

“I really hope I can get some good hummus and tahini,” he said, smiling. “I don’t know if they have it — or if they have it in the form that I’m familiar with — but Jewish food anywhere is good.”

Blatt — who will move to Cleveland from Israel, where he was an overwhelmingly successful coach for Maccabi Tel Aviv — addressed the media for the first time as Cavs coach at a June 25 news conference at Cleveland Clinic Courts.

Blatt’s hiring marks a historic moment not only for the game of basketball — it’s the first time a Euroleague coach has made the transition directly to head coach in the NBA — but also for Israel and the worldwide Jewish community.

“Based on the response in Israel, it means a great deal. No less important — and I want this out there — the Cavaliers have greatly increased their fan base by 7 million,” the 55-year-old veteran coach told the Cleveland Jewish News. “The whole country of Israel has now become Cleveland Cavaliers fans because one of their sons is in the program. It means a lot because of the example it sets and because of the road traveled, which a lot of people are familiar with.”

Blatt will become the team’s 20th head coach. Yahoo! Sports reports Blatt agreed to a three-year contract that has a team option for a fourth year and that his annual base salary will be $3.33 million, with incentives that could raise it to $5 million per year.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be here today next to this man. David really is sort of the culmination of a very long and thorough process, and he’s truly — as I went back and looked at the criteria we set out more than a month ago — he’s truly the embodiment of every characteristic we most sought in a coach,” said Cavs general manager David Griffin at the news conference.

The Cavs fired coach Mike Brown, who spent only one season leading the Cavs during his second coaching stint with the team, on May 12. The team finished the 2013-14 season 33-49 — disappointing in that many, including Cavs majority owner Dan Gilbert, believed the team was poised to make the playoffs after accumulating several high draft picks in recent years.

Blatt isn’t a complete stranger to Cleveland. He was here in the 1980s as a player when he went up against a Kevin Mackey-coached Cleveland State University team, and he visited to scout players for the Euroleague during Randy Wittman’s tenure as Cavs coach between 1999 and 2002.

Despite relatively few visits, Blatt said he has friends in Cleveland and was welcomed to the city in the days following his hire.

“Several people from the community have reached out to me already — too many names even to mention — but it’s a good feeling knowing I’m coming into a place where I’m going to have a few friends.”

Born in 1959 in suburban Boston, Blatt grew up watching the Bill Russell-era Boston Celtics win 10 NBA championships in 11 seasons from 1959 to 1969. The Celtics tacked on three more NBA titles in 1974, 1976 and 1981.

Blatt played prep basketball at Framingham South High School according to JTA, and went on to play point guard at Princeton University from 1977 to 1981 under respected longtime Tigers Coach Pete Carril.

During his sophomore year, Blatt was recruited by a coach for an Israeli kibbutz team to play overseas that summer, JTA reported. He did, and in 1981, Blatt returned to Israel to win a gold medal at the Maccabiah Games as a member of the U.S. national team.

“From the time that I came here in ’79, I knew that I wanted to play in Israel professionally for some years,” Blatt told Haaretz. “I realized I wasn’t making the NBA, and I wanted to continue to play basketball professionally, in terms of money, but more than anything, to keep playing.”

Blatt’s career spanned 1981 to 1993, and nine of those seasons were spent playing in Israel. Upon retiring, he began a coaching career that’s lasted to this day.

He started in 1993 as a coach for Hapoel Galil Elyon, and in 1999, he joined Maccabi Tel Aviv as an assistant coach. He later became head coach.

Blatt left Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2004 but returned for a second stint in 2010. In between, he coached various teams in Russia and Italy.

Along the way, he was named Israeli coach of the year in both 1996 and 2002 and Russian coach of the year in 2005.

Blatt made headlines in May when he led his team to a Cinderella championship in the Euroleague, in the process toppling CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid — both considered stronger teams.

Following the Euroleague championship, Blatt announced he’d be leaving the team. At a June 12 news conference, he explained his reasoning.

“I’m not leaving Maccabi for a bigger contract. I’m leaving to pursue a different dream for my career, one which began in my childhood when I grew up watching the Boston Celtics,” said Blatt, according to Maccabi Tel Aviv’s website. “This is something I have not yet achieved and I truly believe that this is the best time to make this move. Maccabi asked me to stay; it was my decision to leave. I am very proud to have been a part of this team and club, and I thank you again from the bottom of my heart.”

Blatt now has his chance, and if he’s successful, he’ll bring Cleveland its first championship by a major professional sports team since the Browns won the pre-Super-Bowl-era NFL Championship in 1964.

Blatt’s Israeli wife, Kinneret, and their four children — 22-year-old twin daughters, a 17-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter — will eventually move to Northeast Ohio.

“In time, I’ll find a synagogue in the area I live in,” he said, joking that he also needs to find a gym. “I think it’s important for me to be a part of the Cleveland community as a whole, and certainly, a part of the Jewish community specifically.”

Also, basketball runs in his family.

“My son is a basketball player, and currently is being recruited to come play college next year. We’re going to have some decisions to make because he has an army commitment and he’s also a kid who has a chance to go and play in the first division in Israeli basketball even next year,” he said. “One thing for sure is he’s not quite ready for the Cavaliers, but we’re thinking about it down the road.”

What position does his son play?

“Point guard — and he’s better than his Dad,” Blatt admitted. “Which is what we all want, of course, particularly as good Jewish parents.”

To read the complete August 2014 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.