Mike Fratello’s ties to the former Soviet republic now under Russian attack stretch back to his days as Alexander Volkov’s first NBA coach in the 1980s. They only got deeper from there.
Click here to read Marc Stein’s (The Stein Line) account of how Coach Fratello came to coach Ukraine’s national team.
In his USA Basketball coaching debut as head coach of the USA Men’s National Team that competed in the February 2020 FIBA AmeriCup qualifying games, Mike Fratello led his team to two wins against Puerto Rico.
Fratello, who currently is an analyst for NBA TV and for nationally televised games on TNT, served as an NBA head coach for 17 seasons, including stints with the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Memphis Grizzlies.
Boasting of an NBA career regular-season record of 667-548 for a .549 winning percentage, he led teams to the NBA playoffs in 11 of his 15 full seasons as a head coach. He ranks 20th in all-time NBA regular season wins (667) and 21st in games coached (1,215).
USA Basketball spoke with Fratello to get his insight and perspective on coaching. Click here to read the interview.
Perhaps my lucky clover glasses had something to do with the Nets’ win over the Suns on St. Patrick’s Day.
Caught up with some members of the Cavs family past, Wayne Embry, Jim Paxson and Danny Ferry, at the jersey retirement ceremony for Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
After the World Cup draw in Barcelona, Spain I traveled to Kiev for the 2014 Ukraine Cup. Prior to the championship game on Sunday I ran a coaching clinic with four of my assistants, and we had about 160 attendees. Then we watched Budivelnik beat Donetsk for the Ukraine Cup title!
Photo courtesy of Oleksiy Naumov.
The Official Website/Blog of Mike Fratello 