Latest / Bleacher Report / Cavs HC Kenny Atkinson Reacts to Winning 2025 Coach of the Year

Transcript

Cavs HC Kenny Atkinson Reacts to Winning 2025 Coach of the Year · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chuckster, would you do the honor? I would be honored, surely.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Chuck was a joy to coach.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: I was a definite joy to coach.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: You were not coaching that was easy to coach.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Act Jimmy Lonham, Billy Cunningham, Matt bu Killer, Rudy Tom Jonavis.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: The twenty twenty five Coach of the Year from the
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Cleveland Cavaliers.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Kenny Atkinson, Yes.
• 0:23
  Speaker 4: Indeed, and Wes are we congratulate Kenny Atkinson on that award.
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: It was uh, it was close. Kenny Atkinson four oh one, JB.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Bickerstaff three to oh five, Email Yudoka one thirteen the
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: top three. Then Mark Dagnault, Tron Lou and JJ Reddick
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: got the sixth place in the Coach of the Year.
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: Kenny is Kenny's here, he's standing by and number one,
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: we congratulate your coach. It's been a heck of a
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: season already for the Cleveland Cavaliers and continues here into
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: the postseason. I was reading a profile the other day
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: and you talked about your years at Golden State with
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: Steve Kerr, and you talked about the fact that it
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: kind of brought joy back into the equation when it
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: comes to coaching. How does that fit in and how
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: did it fit in for you in Cleveland?
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean my time with Steve I call it
• 1:22
  Speaker 5: finishing school. I think I was here, Ernie, your your
• 1:26
  Speaker 5: typical kind of hard nos coach. And just being around
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: Steve and observing how he conducted practices, how he communicated
• 1:37
  Speaker 5: with his stars, how he included the whole roster in
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: his thought process. It just made me a better coach.
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: Really thankful for the experience and and and uh, it's
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: made made me you know who I am today. It
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: was a great, great experience.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Coach shot here. First of all, congratulations, but everybody pretty
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: much doing the same thing. Pick and roll. I have
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: a kind of an off base question. If you had
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: caliber players such as myself and Charles, would you make
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: us go to the pick and roll? Or what a
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: revert back to the old school, get the guys in
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: the pumps.
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: Ooh, we talked about this at All Star Shack. No,
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: you got to play to your player of strengths. So
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: I'd go, I go double post, all right, each on
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: a different block and then we figure it out from there.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: Hey, you know number one, congratulations When did you know
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: your team was going to be good, cause I always
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: ask coaches that because you know, when the season started,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: you're like, Okay, we got potential, but you guys have
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: had the best record basically in the East all year.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: So when did you know your team like, we got
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: a really good team?
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: Well, Chuck, it wasn't after preseason because we were owing
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: for got drilled by Chicago the last game. You're wonder, man,
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: are we going to be any good? But honestly, I
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: knew in training camp. I knew after the second day
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: of practice. I came back to the coaching staff. We're
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: in our coaches locker room, and uh, we're just all
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: blown away at the skill level, the competition level, the unity,
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: and quite honestly, our leadership with our best players. When
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: you have all those things in place, it uh, you know,
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: you knew you had something special going. And then of
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: course we start out fifteen and oh right, and and
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: uh we got off to that blazing start and that
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: just confirmed what we what we saw in training camp.
• 3:37
  Speaker 6: Well, coach, first, congratulations and if you had me as
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: a not just play.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Exactly, thank you, thank you.
• 3:47
  Speaker 6: But it's great to see myself on TV as I'm
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: on TV in the background. That's great you have us
• 3:53
  Speaker 6: on in the background, but.
• 3:55
  Speaker 7: My family's back there watching as always good glad. That's
• 4:05
  Speaker 7: our birthday parties. Fellas celebrate everything.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: So to do that, it's supposed to do that, coach
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: supposed to do that.
• 4:19
  Speaker 6: My one question would be, you know, we knew Donovan,
• 4:23
  Speaker 6: you know, Gaarland were all stars. And who are the
• 4:25
  Speaker 6: two or three guys that when this year overperformed to
• 4:31
  Speaker 6: help make this Coach of Coach of the Year award.
• 4:34
  Speaker 6: I meaning, like, man, that's this guy who was gonna
• 4:36
  Speaker 6: cut do well for me, but man, more than I expected.
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, uh, you know, the easy answer is
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: Evan Mobley, you know, empowering him. Uh and really not
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: not just myself, but our leaders Donovan and Darius and
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: and and Jared Allen.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Empowering Evan.
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: They knew he was the key, right, they knew he
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: was the key to us making the next step. And
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: I think I think after that, Kenny, it's it's our
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: bench right celebrating our depth. We have so many good players,
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: I mean, Kobe Allman put this roster together. Our front office,
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: uh so much talent, talent I was gifted, you know,
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: really into a great situation, but that that was really
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: the key that evans development. And then and then the
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: trust and our bench and our depth.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: As we close, Kenny, look, you've played all over the
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: world for years and years, but it started at Richmond
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: as a Spider and man you were you had some
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: short shorts, right, What are your memories.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: As a player?
• 5:51
  Speaker 6: People have dumped that that.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: How much did you enjoy playing and and did that?
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Is that?
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: What really your love of the game, your passion for
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the game is that? Where is that? Where?
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: Great call Ernie And I think I was so lucky
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: at a great high school coach out on Long Island
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: in New York. They went to Richmond, had a great,
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: great college coach, and then like you said, I went
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: overseas and played and coach and and had you know,
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: great experiences there.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: And then in the NBA.
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: I've been around you know, Rick Adelman, Steve kerr tylu
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: I mean, just go budenholes. I've just had these. He's
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: just real lucky with the circumstances. Mike D'Antoni. It's like,
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: how did I fall into this? And it's really the
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: accumulation of my experiences. But Richmond, Man, we uh uh,
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: you know, we won with discipline and uh, chuck you
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: remember Richmond.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Just too soon, it's too soon.
• 7:02
  Speaker 7: I still think you had thirty and twenties. Oh don't worry.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: Hey, hey, listen. I got to know coach Terrant later
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: and I still hate Bill Fly and the Johnny Newman
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: to this day.
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: Incredibly.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know what, het they beat us man,
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: but yeah, it's still too soon. Coach to Richmond in March, madness,
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: Henny Atkinson.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: We are happy for you, man, so well deserved. And man, that's.
• 7:31
  Speaker 7: Well done roadb guys.
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: Just just an honor and humble to be on with
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: you guys. And uh, you know all the great coaches
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: in this league, all the all the guys in our
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: league to be you know, singled out to be, you know,
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: coach of the year.
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: It's just.
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: Really special.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Well you deserved it, that's for sure. What the rest
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: of the way, we appreciate it.
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: See you down the road, all right.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: That's awesome, man, it is. That was so funny. I
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: did not know he played at Richmond. Yeah, because Dick
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Terrant was. They actually beat uh Indiana. Bob Knight coached
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Indiana team and went to the Sweet sixteen. Did you
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: ever win a game in the n C Double A.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Did you ever get to the Final four?
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: You like to own the North Carolina guy never got
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: to that game?
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: You played with my question?
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: That's your question is did you play with your question?
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: You played with Michael Jordan's answered Mike, you play with
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Michael Jordan's Ills College Player the Year?
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Wait, did you play with Michael Jordan's leave it Alone? Yeah?
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: What a game at the tournament