NBA: Getting To Know the Cavaliers New Head Coach

The Cleveland Cavaliers will reportedly hire Golden State Warriors Assistant Coach Kenny Atkinson as their 24th Head Coach in franchise history. He is going to be taking the sidelines as the head guy after Cleveland decided to move on from JB Bickerstaff following their Conference Semifinal exit at the hands of the eventual champion Boston Celtics 4-1. Unless you are a pure diehard NBA fan, you may not know much about Kenny, so here is a little bit more about the man who will be coming in from the West Coast.

This will by Kenny Atkinson’s second head coaching job in the NBA. He led the Brooklyn Nets on the sideline from 2016-2020. He decided to step down from that opportunity in March of 2020 after the Nets were 28-34. He had one winning season in Brooklyn which came in his third year leading the team as they finished with a record of 42-40, and a playoff berth in 2019. They were eliminated in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers in five games. Atkinson has been an Assistant for the New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers, and most recently the Golden State Warriors where he won a championship ring in 2022. In his short time as a head coach, he had an overall record of 118-190. Hopefully his second opportunity as the top guy goes better than the first.

Kenny is a 57 year old from Northport, New York. We went to college at Richmond where he was a Point Guard, and led the Spiders to the Sweet 16 in 1988. Atkinson averaged 18.9 points per game as a Senior at Richmond. He had tryouts in the NBA with the Knicks in 1991, but ended up playing his entire career overseas. He played professionally from 1993-2004. He saw his fair share of travel as a player. He played in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands respectively. In 2020 he was inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame on Long Island, New York. The Charlotte Hornets tried to hire him as their Head Coach in 2022, but he eventually declined the offer and stayed with the Warriors until this Cavs offer came up. He has plenty of experience coaching and has been a part of successful teams. The question becomes now, can he lead Cleveland to wins and deep playoff runs. He will be more scrutinized this time around as he has tons of young talent and is his second time around as a head coach, so expectations will be a lot higher than before. Welcome to The Land Coach Atkinson!