Bill Fitch RIP

[Mott the Hoople]

For those of you too young to remember, Bill Fitch was the first coach of the Cavaliers. He took a poor expansion team and eventually took them to the playoffs.
His quick wit was always fun to listen to.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Our first HC, and a good one! The Father of the Miracle of Richfield!

 

[AtomicDogg97]

The Bill Fitch I knew brought the Cleveland Cavaliers to life – Terry Pluto

Bill Fitch coached in the NBA for 25 years and with five different teams. It all began in Cleveland in 1970.

www.cleveland.com

Read this great article by Terry Pluto. Bill Fitch prepared for the Cavs expansion draft by using statistics from the back of basketball cards. RIP.

 

[jjvors]

Rest in peace, Bill. I"m glad you lived to see the Cavs as the world champions.

 

[catfish]

I would of thought the article would have at least mentioned the big spat between Miletti and Fitch that happened during the playoffs.

 

[2 For The Brew]

Missed this completely. Mileti did a hell of a job picking Fitch and later Albeck. He also built the Coliseum.

Bill Fitch was a coach with no NBA experience who had four tough years to start with a bad expansion draft (three new teams in one year) and bad injury luck (Austin Carr). He was also the GM, and was involved in the only big ABA - NBA trade to get Jim Chones. His trade for Nate was brilliant. He took a team with no real stars to the ECF, and might have won it all if Chones hadn’t been hurt.

He and Nick Mileti created the Cavaliers we have today. The team Fitch built has a lot of similarities to ours, except the current team has more talent.

It was rotten luck that the ABA merger happened the first year we were good. Any earlier and we would have received a nice player in the dispersal draft.

 

[rabman_gold]

Also, Bill Fitch is the only Cav who coached the majority of his time with us to be in the Hall of Fame. Wilkins also was a Cav, but only spent 1 year as a player and 7 years as a coach (he spent more years as a Sonic coach with 11 years).

Player-wise, we have some Hall of Famers who played with us, but not for more than a year. LeBron will probably be the best Cav to be a Hall of Famer.