Mike Fratello

Mike Fratello
Player information
Full name	Michael Robert Fratello
birthday	24th February 1947 (age 73)
place of birth	Hackensack , New Jersey , USA
college	Montclair State, New Jersey
Clubs as coaches
1970–1972 Rhode Island ( NCAA ; assistant coach) 1972–1975 James Madison (NCAA; assistant coach) 1975–1978 Villanova Wildcats (NCAA; assistant coach) 1978–1982 Atlanta Hawks (assistant coach) 1982–1983 New York Knicks (assistant coach) 1983–1990 Atlanta Hawks 1993–1999 Cleveland Cavaliers 2004–2006 Memphis Grizzlies
National team as coach
2011–2014 Ukraine

Michael Robert "Mike" Fratello (born February 24, 1947 in Hackensack , New Jersey ) is an American basketball coach who can look back on a long career in the highest-paying professional league NBA . He was NBA Coach of the Year 1985/86 and, with 667 wins in 1,215 games, is counted as the coach in charge of the 20 NBA coaches with the most wins and most appearances. After the end of his engagement with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2006, Fratello worked as a television analyst for basketball games, which he had previously done in times of no contract. In 2011 he was appointed national coach of the Ukrainian men's selection , which he oversees in the US “ off-season ” at international games in the summer months .

Career

During his school years at the local high school in Hackensack, he was active in various sports teams and went to study at Montclair State College in the town of the same name in his home state. In college, he was primarily active on the college's American football team. After completing his studies, he returned to his high school in 1969 as an assistant coach for the school teams in American football and basketball. After a year he went to the University of Rhode Island , where he worked as an assistant coach for the Rams basketball team in the NCAA Division I. After two years, he moved to James Madison University in Harrisonburg , Virginia in the same position in 1972 . Three more years later he went to Villanova University in Philadelphia, where he worked as an assistant to Rollie Massimino, who led the college team Wildcats in 1978 to their first Conference championship in the Atlantic 10 Conference . In the national NCAA finals , the Wildcats reached the quarter-finals Elite Eight for the first time in seven years . After these three years, Fratello got the offer to work in the professional league NBA .

In 1978 Fratello moved as an assistant coach to the Atlanta Hawks in the most successful professional basketball league, the NBA, where he initially worked under head coach Hubie Brown , who had previously become coach of the year of the NBA 1977/78 . At the end of the NBA 1980/81 season , however, Brown was fired and Fratello took over for the remaining three games of the season. For the following season, however, Kevin Loughery was the new head coach and Fratello initially continued to work as an assistant before Brown brought him back to New York as his assistant in his new position as head coach of the New York Knicks. After a year at the Knicks, however, Loughery's time with the Hawks was over and the Hawks brought Fratello back to Atlanta as head coach.

Fratello's start as head coach with the Hawks was bumpy. His predecessor Loughery had presented positive season results with play-off participation and Fratello managed to move into the play-offs in his first season as responsible coach in the NBA 1983/84 , but the negative season balance worsened in the following season the Hawks missed this time making it into the final round. In addition, the franchise suffered from a lack of interest in Atlanta and had sold twelve home games to New Orleans . In the NBA 1985/86 Fratello succeeded the turning point and he led the Hawks with star player Dominique Wilkins and the young players Doc Rivers , Kevin Willis , Antoine Carr and " rookie " Spud Webb to the best record in six years with 50 wins, which gave him the NBA Coach of the Year award. In the play-offs they lost in the second round against the eventual "champion" Boston Celtics . In the NBA 1986/87 even 57 wins in the regular season, which was the best season record of the Hawks in the NBA to date, and the title win of the old Central Division . As second in the Eastern Conference , however, they were eliminated again in the second play-off round against the new emerging championship Detroit Pistons , which had been defeated a year earlier in the first round.

In the NBA 1987/88 they achieved 50 wins again in the regular season and this time eliminated in the second play-off round against the Boston Celtics this time in just under seven games. After 52 wins in the NBA in 1988/89 it was already in the first play-off round against the Milwaukee Bucks . In the NBA 1989/90 they only achieved a balanced record of 41 wins in 82 games and missed the play-offs. Fratello's time with the Hawks came to an end, and for the next three years he worked with Marv Albert as a television analyst for NBC Networks . In 1993 the Cleveland Cavaliers signed him as head coach after predecessor Lenny Wilkens switched to the Hawks. In the NBA 1993/94 Fratello came with 47 wins on Wilkens successful two seasons before and lost in the first play-off round against defending champion Chicago Bulls . The following two seasons were lost in the first round against the New York Knicks. In the NBA 1996/97 a slightly positive season balance of 42 wins in 82 games was no longer enough to make it into the play-offs. At the Cavaliers, Fratello was faced with the task of replacing aging star players like Mark Price , John Williams and Michael Cage . In the NBA 1997/98 they returned to the play-offs after 47 wins. In the shortened NBA 1998/99 it was no longer enough to move into the play-offs and Fratello had to take his hat. The Cavaliers then deteriorated continuously until the acquisition of LeBron James .

In 2004, Hubie Brown resigned from his post with the Memphis Grizzlies for health reasons, after he was again coach of the year of the NBA the year before after the first play-off participation in the history of the Grizzlies. After a short interim, Mike Fratello was his successor and was able to lead the Grizzlies again into the play-offs after a moderate start to the season, where, however, as in the previous year, they were again without a win in the first round. In the following NBA 2005/06 they increased to 49 wins this season, but in the first play-off round they remained without a win for the third time in a row and were eliminated from the eventual finalists Dallas Mavericks . After a disastrous start to the 2006/07 NBA season with just six wins in 30 games, Fratello was sacked as coach. With eleven play-off appearances in 16 NBA seasons as the responsible coach, he and his teams never got past the second round, although with a win rate of almost 55% he can show respectable statistical figures over all games.

After the end of his coaching career in the NBA, Fratello worked again as a television commentator at the side of Marv Albert at TNT , whose owner Ted Turner from 1977 to 1995 also owned the Atlanta Hawks through companies controlled by him.

Fratello in 2015

After Fratello already knew three Ukrainians personally, Alexander Volkov with the Hawks, Vitaly Potapenko with the Cavaliers and Serhiy Lishchuk , who had been drafted by the Grizzlies in 2004 , he was nevertheless appointed head coach of the Ukrainian men's national team in 2011 . With the Ukrainian selection Fratello slipped into the field of participants in the extended finals of the 2011 European Basketball Championship , in which, however, only two games were won in the preliminary round. The 16-point defeat against Georgia turned out to be too great a burden in a three-way comparison between these two teams and Bulgaria to advance to the next round. Two years later, Fratello and Ukraine made another attempt at the 2013 European Championship finals to make it to the top European teams or even to qualify for the 2014 World Basketball Championship .

Web links

• The Official Website / Blog of Mike Fratello - Home / blog of Mike Fratello ( English )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Mike Fratello NBA & ABA Basketball Coaching Record. Basketball-Reference.com, accessed September 3, 2013 . 
2. ^ Mark Woods: Fratello revitalized as Ukraine coach. ESPN , September 2, 2011, accessed September 3, 2013 .