The Cleveland Cavaliers are in search of a new coach after firing Mike Brown last week. (General manager Danny Ferry voluntarily followed him out the door a few days later.) Owner Dan Gilbert needs to hire a replacement who will impress his free agent superstar, LeBron James. But in the process, might he also want to indulge his inner Michigan State Spartans fan?
According to Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, Gilbert is very interested in bringing his alma mater's men's basketball coach from East Lansing to Cleveland.
[Cleveland Cavaliers GM Dan] Ferry fought to retain Brown, but [Owner Dan] Gilbert, a staunch Michigan State man, is determined to hire away Tom Izzo.
The only thing that might stop Gilbert from putting the full-court press on Izzo is if King James says he wants Kentucky's John Calipari as his coach instead.
As you might imagine, this would cause quite an uproar in Spartan Country. And as you might expect, SB Nation's Michigan State blog, The Only Colors, is following the story closely.
Izzo has always admitted that competing at the NBA level holds some appeal for him, and, if he were ever going to leave for the pros, you'd think he'd be looking for a situation in which competing for an NBA title was a real possibility. Coaching a Cleveland Cavaliers team able to retain LeBron James' services would absolutely fit that description.
So, like, YIKES.
KJ has a further update, passing along a report that the Cavs have already offered Izzo the job.
According to a league source, they are centering their efforts on bringing in Michigan State coach Tom Izzo.
In fact, they've already made him an offer to be their coach, the source said. It's going to take a lot of money to convince Izzo to leave the confines of the college ranks.
Gilbert says his preference is to have a new coach in place by July 1.