The tears came pouring out, all the way from Oakland — on the court, at the podium and in the locker room — to the streets of downtown Cleveland and in houses all over the state. Even head coach Tyronn Lue, who became known for his stoic demeanor throughout an uneven NBA Finals run, couldn’t keep it together.
“After the game, it was just — I never cry,” he said at the podium. “I’ve always been tough and never cried. Just after the game — my brother is here, Greg, just said: I’ve never seen you cry before. Just a lot of emotions just built up. My grandfather couldn’t be here. He passed away, and all the haters and all the doubters. It just all built up at one time. Then finally hearing that last horn go off, it was just unbelievable. It didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel right.”
“I don’t care, “I don’t care about credit. We won. Everyone deserves credit.”
“It’s been very tough,” Lue said. “The team was great. They supported me from day one, taking over a tough situation that wasn’t — you can’t see yourself taking over the situation that I took over in, and then also taking over when you’re coaching a LeBron James team, and I knew it was going to be tough.”
Lue brought 11 seasons as an NBA backup to his job, along with time served with Rivers in Boston and Los Angeles. But he also learned on the fly, the privileges as well as the challenges of James, as far as ordering a team around such a rare and dominant player. He preached pace and defense, tried to shake loose Kevin Love whenever called for and for a spell anyway, unleashed a 3-point potential the Cavs might not even known had.
Along the way, Lue seemed to have little or no ego — a departure from Blatt’s occasional defensiveness over his impressive international coaching career — and a similar disinterest in the spotlight.
When it was over, he was glad that the spotlight was shining elsewhere, so he could simply sit on the bench and cry.
“My mom, she’s a minister, and God is good. I mean, I don’t know. What you want me to say?”
Coach Lue On-Line Bio:
Tyronn Jamar Lue (born May 3, 1977) is an American retired professional basketball player and current head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).[1] The 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m), 175 lb (79 kg) point guard was selected out of the University of Nebraska by the Denver Nuggets with the 23rd overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft and was traded shortly thereafter to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he won two NBA Championships in his first three seasons.
After his playing career ended in 2009, Lue became Director of Basketball Development for the Boston Celtics.[2] In 2014, he was hired by the Cleveland Cavaliers as associate head coach and was promoted to head coach on January 22, 2016, after the firing of David Blatt.[3] That same year, Lue helped lead the Cavaliers to their third NBA Finals appearance and first NBA championship.
