Mike Fratello

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Mike Fratello (born February 24, 1947 in Hackensack, New Jersey) is a professional basketball coach. He previously coached the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA. Fratello has the most wins of any Memphis coach and under Fratello Memphis made the playoffs two years in a row.

He has also coached the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Atlanta Hawks. In his six seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers his record was 248 wins and 212 losses. Fratello took the Cavaliers to the playoffs four times. Fratello coached the Hawks for seven seasons and posted a 324-250 record, making the post-season playoffs five times and winning the Central Division in 1987 with 57 wins. Fratello was named coach of the year for the 1985-1986 NBA season. His NBA career stats are 666 wins and 542 losses for a .551 average. His teams have qualified for the playoffs in eleven of his 16 seasons as a head coach. One of the most respected basketball minds despite having never won an NBA championship as a head coach, Fratello ranks 19 on the NBA's all time win list and 21 in games coached.

He has been a television commentator for NBC and TNT. During his stint as a color commentator, Marv Albert dubbed him "The Czar of the Telestrator" for his masterful way of diagramming basketball plays on screen.

Fratello graduated from Hackensack High School, Hackensack, N.J., where he was captain of the basketball, baseball and football teams. He was named to the Bergen "All County" Football team as a center in his senior year. He then went on to Montclair State College in Montclair, N.J. on a football scholarship. Upon graduation he returned to Hackensack H.S. as an assistant for both the basketball and football teams. Fratello then went on to the University of Rhode Island as a graduate assistant assigned to head coach Tom Carmody, and also coached the U.R.I. freshman basketball team. He had been a college basketball assistant at James Madison under Lou Campanelli and served as an assistant for Rollie Massimino at Villanova before coming to the NBA as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks during Hubie Brown's tenure. On December 28, 2006, ESPN announced that the Grizzlies had fired Fratello.

[edit] Career record

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, % = Win-Loss %

Mike Fratello's career coaching record

Franchise	Season	W	L	%	Postseason
Atlanta Hawks	1983-84	40	42	.488	2-3 record
Atlanta Hawks	1984-85	34	48	.415
Atlanta Hawks	1985-86	50	32	.610	4-5 record
Atlanta Hawks	1986-87	57	25	.695	4-5 record
Atlanta Hawks	1987-88	50	32	.634	6-6 record
Atlanta Hawks	1988-89	52	30	.634	2-3 record
Atlanta Hawks	1989-90	41	41	.500
Cleveland Cavaliers	1993-94	47	35	.573	0-3 record
Cleveland Cavaliers	1994-95	43	39	.524	1-3 record
Cleveland Cavaliers	1995-96	47	35	.573	0-3 record
Cleveland Cavaliers	1996-97	42	40	.512
Cleveland Cavaliers	1997-98	47	35	.573	1-3 record
Cleveland Cavaliers	1998-99	22	28	.440
Memphis Grizzlies	2004-05	40	26	.606	0-4 record
Memphis Grizzlies	2005-06	49	33	.598	0-4 record
Memphis Grizzlies	2006-07	6	24	.200
Totals		667	545	.550
Playoffs		20	42	.323

Preceded by Hubie Brown	Atlanta Hawks Head Coach 1981 (interim)	Succeeded by Kevin Loughery
Preceded by Kevin Loughery	Atlanta Hawks Head Coach 1983–1990	Succeeded by Bob Weiss
Preceded by Lenny Wilkens	Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach 1993–1999	Succeeded by Randy Wittman
Preceded by Hubie Brown	Memphis Grizzlies Head Coach 2004–2006	Succeeded by Tony Barone (interim)

[edit] References

[edit] External link

• ESPN.com profile