‘The Czar’ gets his due: Mike Fratello receives 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award

The longtime coach-turned-broadcaster led the Hawks, Cavs and Grizzlies to a combined 667-548 record, with 11 playoff appearances in 16 seasons.

Mike Fratello has been involved in the NBA in some capacity — coach, assistant coach, or broadcaster — since the late 1970s.

SAN FRANCISCO — Mike Fratello, young Atlanta Hawks assistant coach, was 35 years old and stood 5-foot-7 inches (same as now) when he got the chance to interview for the Chicago Bulls’ top job for the 1982-83 season.

The process went well enough and Fratello already was home when he got the call that the Bulls had decided to hire Paul Westhead. The snag? One of Chicago’s co-owners had decided that Fratello was too short to command the respect of NBA players.

Recalling that slight Sunday, Fratello, now 75, said, “You earn respect.”

Click here for the rest of the story by Steve Aschburner for NBA.com.

Around the League

Mike’s Take

Ukrainian by way of New Jersey

LEFT: Fratello as Hawks coach; RIGHT: Alexander “Sasha” Volkov playing for the Hawks.
(Focus on Sport/Getty Images and Rick Stewart /Allsport)

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.

Mike Looks Back

Bally Sports South’s Kelly Crull caught up with former Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Fratello about coaching Dominique Wilkins.