Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv announced on Wednesday that David Blatt, who guided the team to the 2014 EuroLeague crown as head coach, is returning to the team in an advisory role.
Maccabi brings in Blatt in advisory role
Blatt, 63, begins his third stint with Maccabi. He previously coached the team from 2001 to 2003 and from 2010 to 2014. Blatt was also a Maccabi assistant from 1999 to 2001 and in the 2003-04 season. He took Maccabi to three Final Fours and won the title as head coach and went to three more Final Fours and won two continental crowns as an assistant.
In his new capacity with Maccabi, Blatt will head a professional committee that will also include the team’s head coach, general manager and scouting staff. The committee’s purpose will be to support the head coach.
"I am very happy to return to Maccabi Tel Aviv", David Blatt told the club's official website. "I am happy to join Nikola Vujcic, Avi Even and the rest of the professional team and look forward to start working, even though we have already started. We will define and bring in players and people who will help Maccabi return to where it needs to be."
Blatt also coached Benetton Treviso, Anadolu Efes Istanbul, Darussafaka Istanbul and Olympiacos Piraeus in the EuroLeague. He is on the shortlist of coaches to have won three continental competitions; he was the FIBA EuroChallenge champion with Dynamo St. Petersburg in 2005 and won the 7DAYS EuroCup with Darussafaka in 2018. Blatt spent six years as the head coach of the Russian national team, which he guided to the gold medal at EuroBasket 2007 and a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games. He also coached Cleveland in the NBA, which he led to the Eastern Conference championship and an appearance in the NBA Finals in 2015. Blatt left coaching in October 2019 after he had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
"I think we took a very big step forward in bringing David Blatt back to the club as chairman of the professional committee," Maccabi chairman Shimon Mizrahi said. "David knows Maccabi Tel Aviv for long, he won the European championship in Milan in 2014, he was a coach in the NBA. He won many titles, was the coach of the Russian national team and had many accomplishments with it. He knows players, he knows the structures of EuroLeague teams because he also coached EuroLeague teams. I think his contribution will be great. He will work together with the entire professional team and lead us to many successes. He is coming back home."