Blatt is the toast of Treviso

From www.haaretz.com
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David Blatt's previous championship game, some three years ago with Maccabi Tel Aviv, was against Ironi Nahariya and ended in a 53-point win. Blatt's crowning as Italian champion, with Benetton Treviso Tuesday night, came following a one-point victory over Climamio Bologna.

"It's impossible to make comparisons," Blatt said yesterday. "When I won the championship with Maccabi, I was happy; but it doesn't come close to what happened here. And not because it ended in a one-point difference, but because we came through three tough playoff series. It was a tremendous effort; the achievement is much bigger, and so the joy is much greater. I feel fantastic."

Tuesday's triumph was Treviso's fourth championship, and its first since 2003, and the festivities went on all night.

"It's a small town - just 90,000 people," Blatt said. "Sport is deep in the heart of everyone... The championship belongs to the entire club. It wasn't expected, and this made it all the more exciting. We partied all night with the fans. We went to a restaurant that belongs to the Benetton family; some 4,000 people showed up, and obviously most of them couldn't get in."

An hour and a half after the victory, Blatt turned his cellphone on, and since then he has been inundated with calls from well-wishers in Israel. "The phone doesn't stop ringing. It really makes me feel good to know that people in Israel are happy for me," he said.

Among the well-wishers were a number of Maccabi Tel Aviv officials, who would be happy to see Blatt return to the club as head coach next season. "I have already scratched the surface with Maccabi, and when I return to Israel in two days, I will see if they're interested in me," he said. "I don't know if anything will happen. I have a contract with Benetton and it is not only up to me."

Blatt appears to be enjoying himself at Benetton, and doesn't seem to be missing Israeli basketball all that much. "Unlike other places I have been at, where only the end results are important, at Benetton, the path [to success] is no less important than the results," Blatt said. "Benetton puts a lot of emphasis on the development of players, and it has projects in conjunction with teams in Europe and the NBA... This is something that led me to take the coaching job at Benetton, and I feel at home here."