David Blatt Should Maybe Choose His Battles More Carefully...

I am no expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by any means. I have many Jewish friends and personally know zero Palestinian people...which of course gives me authority to comment on such issues straightaway with much zeal... I do know that that region of the globe has a long, LONG history of conflict and violence. It is a very different part of the world where everyday violence and subjugation is quite common, and of course it helps that a few British, US, and French dudes created arbitrary borders cutting through direct religious/racial areas of a region they had zero historical knowledge of or experience with (thanks a lot, OBAMA...).

I honestly cannot have an educated opinion on this ongoing conflict because of how far removed my own life is from any history or relation to either of the two countries. My education on the subject is based on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report's coverage of the events or random maps I find scouring the internet for pictures of puppies and videos of bears or hamsters doing funny things.

Bringing this all back around to sports, newly-hired Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt (possibly the luckiest coach in the history of sports to literally have LeBron James and potentially Kevin Love fall into his lap) recently shared his opinions over the conflict, per Deadspin. Blatt is an Israeli national being interviewed by an Israeli media organization. Of course his opinion is going to be pro-Israeli, and he has every right to own his opinion and feel the way he feels. But...there is a thing called tact, or cultural sensitivity, or understanding of potentially career-ending sound bites. MAYBE, just MAYBE you wouldn't want to comment on an issue as controversial as this just months after you've been given the greatest job opportunity of your young career. As much as I've learned in my short time on this earth, one of the most important lessons I've gathered is knowing when to shut the hell up and keep certain opinions to myself. That's exactly why I started writing a challenging blog, so I can keep my opinions to myself...

The NBA showed with Donald Sterling that culturally insensitive or ignorant talk is going to be punished severely. If I'm an NBA owner, and my newly-hired head coach, the man I've chosen to lead my team and be the face-man of the franchise, opens his mouth and puts himself in the middle of a global controversy, I may begin to rethink that decision. You'd hope that you wouldn't have to go through the same childish media-related PR lessons with your head coach as your rookie point guard who accidentally posts dick picks on Instagram; you'd hope the leader of your team would understand the bigger picture and realize that his opinion then gets associated with the Cavaliers organization...you can't really hide from things anymore. Know your role, know your responsibilities, and for heaven's sake KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT if you don't want to find yourself coaching the Tel Aviv team again next season rather than riding along Lebron's coattails to the podium next June.