CLEVELAND, Ohio — Welcome back, J.B. Bickerstaff.
The former Cavs coach fired following the team’s Eastern Conference semifinal loss to the Boston Celtics, was back inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Friday night. This time, as head coach of the Central Division rival Detroit Pistons.
During the second stoppage of the first quarter, Cleveland celebrated Bickerstaff with a brief tribute video, thanking him for the many contributions — on and off the court — during his four-plus years with the organization.
“I think we did a hell of a job here from where we started when our staff took over to where we finished,” Bickerstaff said Friday night. “In any rebuild situation, if you could ask for that to happen, every GM in this league, every owner in this league, every player in this league, would sign up for it. We got better every year. Every year we went further, so we did the job we were asked to do and I’m proud of that.”
After the video concluded, a number of fans rose to their feet and showed appreciation — a much different reception than the one Bickerstaff received prior to tipoff, which came with a smattering of boos.
When asked before the game what he expected from fans in his return, Bickerstaff essentially shrugged his shoulders.
“Who knows? My time here, I got mixed reception,” Bickerstaff said with a wry smile. “I might get booed. I might get cheered. Who knows?”
He was right. He got both.
Bickerstaff went 170-159 in the regular season and 6-11 in the playoffs — a postseason mark that drew the ire of this passionate fan base.
Originally hired as an assistant ahead of the 2019-20 season, Bickerstaff took over for the disastrous and out-of-place John Beilein midway through, quickly agreeing to a multi-year contract. During his run, Bickerstaff helped guide the franchise through a challenging rebuild, instilling a playoff-level culture, creating a defense-first identity, showing a unique level of adaptability and turning the Cavs into a contender — a resurgence that also coincided with Donovan Mitchell’s acquisition in 2022.
Bickerstaff capped his coaching run with the team’s first LeBron James-less postseason series win in more than 30 years — a hard-fought, seven-game battle with the Orlando Magic where Cleveland rallied from an 18-point deficit in the series finale, the largest Game 7 comeback in NBA history at the time.
Despite advancing to the conference semifinals, the Cavs were ousted by Boston 4-1, with team decision-makers reassessing Bickerstaff’s future and determining it would be best to move on. Following a lengthy coaching search, the Cavs tabbed Kenny Atkinson — known for his modern philosophies and creative, player-friendly schemes — as Bickerstaff’s replacement.
“Tremendous respect for him as a coach,” Atkinson said of Bickerstaff. “I’ve known him for a long time. He did a great job and really built a good foundation here. A colleague, a friend, but now it’s competition. Got to compete and try to get a W.”