"But that wasn't a sexy pool quote, so we kept looking for something else until we could pool something that sounded negative. That narrative is done. No change is being made, period.
"What we've got is exactly what we talked about, guys. We came into the year and I know it wasn't a sexy story. Growth and development in the long haul is what this is about. Every member of our organization from top to bottom - ownership, myself, the players, coaches, LeBron himself - signed on for the long haul. This is something we're doing over time and yes we've had some bumps. We've had it look really, really bad at times. We've also beaten every team ahead of us in the Eastern Conference.
"As of three games ago we've played the sixth-hardest schedule in the league in terms of wining percentage of opponents against and the toughest in the East. Doing all of that against the backdrop of losing 15 games from our backup point guard, losing our starting center and now LeBron has been out, Kevin had been out Shawn Marion had been out.
"Guys, this is a really difficult recipe to get right. Everybody needs to just settle down and let it happen. But I can promise you that's not a narrative that has validity at all nor will it."
Why the need to speak out on behalf of Blatt now?
"Truthfully, if I wasn't speaking now, I wouldn't have felt something needed to be said because it's just such a ridiculous assertion. It seemed giving life to it is what would happen by talking about it, so I didn't want to do that. At the same time, it's just time for everybody to get on with it. We have a chance to galvanize ourselves and grow and move in a positive direction so I just want to make sure we're doing that in a fresh environment."
