and if we can do that, if we can learn to express collective greatness and the joy that brings, then we can dream about something more. but right now we're a really long way from that. i think most everybody who travels with the team knows that i'm with the team an inordinate amount of time, and i think many of you have felt this as well. with that i will take your questions. >> reporter: tom winters, associated press. thanks, david. this obviously has been building for some time. did you have a final straw, and what did the golden state loss do to accelerate this process? >> i don't think the golden state game by itself did very much. i think it's over time you start to sort of see the type of things that you want to be doing habitually start to erode. sometimes you can win games in the regular season and actually get worse.

i don't think there was a final straw. again, my job is to broker in what i know. i'm in our locker room a lot. i knew that there was just a disconnect. there's a lack of spirit that i couldn't accept. frankly, halfway through the season, i think we have the time to right the ship. i know that sounds crazy when you're sitting here with a 30- 11 record, i understand that. but we were 30-11 with a schedule that was reasonably easy. i'm judging a lot more than wins and losses. >> reporter: david, can you walk me through the procedural part of this some when did you talk to david blatt? when did you inform your team? when did ty lue find out about his promotion? >> sure. ty lue, i spoke with him after

when i spoke we discussed the fact that i do not want him to be interim coach. i've seen some details that have been mentioned of a contract that is absolutely not in place. what we talked about was i don't want him to be in an interim position. i believe in him to lead this franchise. that meant a lot to him. and most importantly, ty lue believes in the staff and the leadership. he was very excited. i had our players brought into the facility, and i then told the players what the decision was, and we've gone from there to this. >> reporter: we talked a lot about stability over the years. was there any concern over that, over disruption? i understand you're elevating one from associate. but just the overall coaching

>> not a lot bick feel like continuity. we've got great leadership in the locker room as well. i think we have a coaching staff, because we have so much coaching experience, and because that group is very close as a unit in terms of the assistants and the way they've dealt with our game planning, i feel like we won't miss a whole lot, but i do feel like we're going to gain a lot in some areas that are critical to us. >> reporter: did you talk to lebron before this decision, and if not, then what was his >> i did not. i didn't talk to any of the players before this decision. it's really critical to me for everybody to understand, this is my decision. decision. i had a conversation with ownership where i got their approval to make this move. i'm not taking a poll. my job is to lead a franchise and to lead an organization where it needs to go.

i didn't ask anybody's opinion on the team. i'm in the locker room. i've done this a long time, and i know what it's supposed to feel like. i didn't need to ask questions. >> reporter: david, espn cleveland. you mentioned the regression over a period of time. was that more so this season as of late, obviously, but then taking it back to the finals, did you see a regression in locker room that made you even think about making this move at the end of last year? >> no, i didn't see that. group there. it's important that i take that into account a great deal, tony, because i think risen against adversity. setting. that gives me great belief that this adversity is adversity we will overcome. but, no, that wasn't a belief i had. in fairness to coach blatt, as soon as i believed that we were at a point where this

i didn't delay for any particular region. >> reporter: you mentioned being unable to handle prosperity early. did you have inklings you might have to make this move earlier, and was that put off in that you wanted to see this team play with full health? >> i really didn't, rick, have those thoughts prior to our coming together healthy. once again, because when we were very good. what i wanted to see was what we would look like when we had use. i think our staff was doing that, looking at game in, game out in terms of the small things. we paid a lot of attention to that. but, no, it wasn't something

i said this in the opening statement, but this happened rather quickly. we've got a group of people that literally answer that question every night. are we doing the best things we can possibly do to deliver championships. i had always argued that we were. when i reached the point that i did not believe that relative to this position, we did something different. it's a really simple formula that we have. >> reporter: melinda adams, espn. what was the reaction from the players? i know you probably can't give did you gather? >> i think we have a group that understands what's at stake. i think we have a group that likes coach blatt, quite frankly. again, because i didn't take a poll, i wasn't quite sure what the mad would be, and it was the mood you would expect in a they were surprised. i think they appreciate that i'm making a decision that i group.

in there that know what their job is. so we had a fairly business- like group. >> reporter: griff, you could make the argument that things were worse after last season. curious, why give it another try? why have to do it at this juncture rather than during the off-season? >> i think it wasn't a function of patience. i think it was familiarity. i think gaze were upset that we didn't have enough talent when it came down to it at the end, and that's on me. i felt like what we needed to do was improve our roster. i think we did that.

unprecedented amount of money. my thought was that with continuity, the things that you all perceived as tension were really tension relative to not knowing each other very well. i wanted to give them a chance to really come together. had we been bert in times of prosperity, i wouldn't have felt the need to do that, because i thought in the finals we were the best version of ourselves. there wasn't a lot of reticence on the part of the players to come back here. they were he can cited to get back to work. i think we all were. >> reporter: david, mark with cleveland 19. can you explain how the conversation went with dan some when you went to him, how surprised was he?

i think he was surprised. from dan's position, i think this was hard to fathom. i think he also understands that we're making this decision for the rate reason. frankly, i think if the finals run did anything for us, it bought some trust into what we're doing. i appreciate the ownership letting me do this. >> reporter: i know you said you didn't take a poll and you didn't talk to the players, but given the fact that lebron is known as, i guess a coach killer, i don't know if you can speak to that. >> i certainly can. i've got a problem in general those of you that have been this.

and he's the leader of this team. he desperately wants to win. he's about this organization. he's about our community. but this narrative that somehow we're taking direction from him, it's not fair. it's not fair to him, in particular, but it's not right. i'm not a perp who believes that you don't talk to the family. this was one where i didn't need to ask them questions. i've watched them interact with each other for a long period of time under a lot of different circumstances. i know what something that's not right looks like, and i believe this was the right decision to make.

it's the wrong decision to make. you may very well hear that. they don't have to like it. this is what we're trying to do. >> reporter: how do you hope or think that changing the coach will improve this team's ability to handle prosperity, and tyronn being a former player, and by all account do you think that played a role? >> i think we had probably gotten to a point, and david really led the push to bring ty here to begin with, and really gave him the latitude to run the defense and to do some things that were really representative. so what many of you saw was people jumping over him to do

because of that i've gotten to see all of these assistants do a great deal of things other assistants don't get to do. i've also gotten to see ty interact with players, and i've gotten to talk with people who have been with him at other places. i've seen a player sprint from one end of the floor to the other. ty doesn't seek that out. the players have an appreciation of who he is. our team needs an appreciation for what they're doing. they need an appreciation for. >> reporter: david, cleveland.com. you've used the word "fit" for a long time and mentioned some of the things ty brings.

him such a better fit now than david? >> in terms of the background he has, in terms of the opportunity he's been given to grow here, i think the voice and the attitude he brings to this is a little bit different. and again, different isn't to imply that what we had was bad. i think the results speak for themselves. but every situation calls for something unique. that's yi used the word "fit." this is -- that's why iyad the word "fit." >> you've been watching live coverage of the press

andy, he talked about identity. identity. you have a payroll with $110 million on it. you have an owner that's paying luxury tax just to have gaze on this team because they're over the luxury tax. this is where the team is now. cavaliers have guts. 11 record. that said, as you look at what they were saying in the press conference, they need to go in a different direction. i think fans saw that the blown out. dan gilbert wants to be number evident and i don't think there's any doubt. >> there was talk about this story line of lebron being a coach killer. i thought was interesting that griffin said, "i did not take a poll." he didn't get a reaction from everybody. >> he is the boss, no question. he wants to make sure everybody knows.

i was there the first season when paul silas was gone, and that's where -- actually touched on that. i talked to brain. here is what he had to say. >> i speculate david blatt's comments last night about being upset that people were upset, that the cavs lost by so many to the warriors, that he was saying this team is doing very well, they're unfirst place, everything's going to be fine. this team was not put together bidan gilbert to be in first place and win a bunch of games but get blown out. this is going to go on a resume, that a coach who was 30-11 was fired with lebron as the team leader.

lebron runs the organization. you can't really battle that. from what i have been told, lebron did not request this to happen. lebron did not actively seek out david griffin or dan gilbert and say i want the coach fired. lebron, i'm told, found out over the phone today after it was already done. >> anticipated, we've got to ask, is this a good move for the cavs? >> yes, i believe it's a good move. david blatt had a lot of trouble transitioning from europe to here. i think tyronn lue will call out lebron james. >> andy, thanks a lot. more breaking news on newschannel5. rta light rail service is shut down right now, this after a suspicious package was found on a train near the buckeye woodhill stop.

6:00.

there have been three shootings in downtown in the past monte that have left

arrests, the latest happening last night on west 9th. kristin volk has the latest. >> you live in the city. you've got to deal with it. many. >> reporter: what happened at this apartment building last night is the topic of conversation among residents and city council members. >> every building owner has to be responsible for the people living there and be aware of what's happening. >> reporter: councilman joe tells me police are diligently working on this case. he is determined that arrests will be made. but as of now there is no description of the two suspect, and cleveland police did not respond to our request for an interview. >> what the police are doing is making sure that they're communicating with the witnesses. >> reporter: in a statement, police did tell us there were witnesses inside that apartment besides the two victims. >> hi, i'm kristin from channel five. >> reporter: we tried to ask questions of the management but they declined.

saying they are saddened and concerned and there is nothing more important than the safety of their residents. john lives next-door. he tells me he has never felt unsafe in the eight years he has lived downtown. that's despite what happened here. a man found dead with a gunshot wound to his head, and last month, a shooting here left three people injured. >> stuff like this happens. it's a tragedy. we have to fix it. but i think the message should go forth that there are a lot of people working very hard to prevent this from happening again and who have been working to prevent things from happening before this happened. >> again, kristin volk reporting. managers at the complex say they have handed over security footage to police. the complex has recently changed ownership. the police reports indicate no major crimes in the past six

friday night, headed into the weekend. how's it looking? >> for us, here in our region, looking a-okay. a few flurries trying to reach up toward canton and dover, new philly, but that's it. but 21 states, 30 million people under a blizzard warning. unbelievable. first of all in cleveland, quiet weather, cloudy skies. i can't rule out an isolated flurry just about anywhere in northern ohio this evening, overnight, even into tomorrow. there's a lot of low level moisture around. here's this storm. it's going to slide up toward raleigh, into norfolk. it's really going to wind up and send some stiff winds into d.c., baltimore, philly, new york city and long island. even into boston, winter weather advisories. for the cape, winter storm warnings. this is a pretty extensive winter storm. a lot of heavy snow kentucky,

d.c. and baltimore, they could see two feet of snow. to the west in the mountains there, above 30 inches of snow possible. for us, notice the leading edge of this winter storm creeping up toward carroll county, into tuscarawas county. not all of this reaching the ground but it's light snow and flurries, that would be about it, reaching up toward the canton area. i can't rule out a flurry even along the shoreline. but that northeasterly flow could be a tiny bit of flurry activity. 24 ellie i can't, lower and middle 20s just about everywhere you go. let's pull up ravenna. 22 degrees on the thermometer. courthouse temperature 22. a dew point of 13. right now winds are pretty light. there you go. it's all about the chill for us here in northern ohio. a northeast breeze along the lakeshore.

with a dew point of 10 so very dry air overhead. with that dry air coming in out of the northeast that is what's stopping that big winter storm from coming any farther north with the snow. dry air out of the northeast, so that's stopping it. 26 our high today, 23 the low. so a three-degree temperature spread. the storm system right here. it will continue to churn. should be offshore by sunday morning or so but in the meantime a lot of heavy snow. they will be measuring one to two feet of snow as we head up to new york city, into philly, washington, d.c. but notice we clear out quickly as we head into sunday. your evening planner, there it is, 24, 23. flurries overnight, light snow, that's it. most of you will stay dry and not see any snow at all. 20 for the low. tomorrow, how about 27.

mainly cloudy with basically a morning flake or two around. akron and canton, lows tonight near 20 with a couple of flakes. tomorrow a few flurries mainly in the morning, 27. now your seven-day. a warm-up coming in. clouds. 42. rain on tuesday, changing to snow in the afternoon, 39. >> a quick reminder, make sure to tune in tomorrow night at of academic challenge. this week teams from st. paul, st. peter's, and strasburg- franklin will compete. it's sponsored by westfield insurance. coming up tonight the latest on the cavs firing of head coach david blatt. david blatt obviously gone. andy, before we go where do you think he's going to end up? >> he could end up at golden state.

i wouldn't be surprised if he there. he was trying to decide if he was going to go there or come here, then he got the offer to be head coach. >> we'll see ty lue in his first game tomorrow night.