Izzo: Cavs Offer Was ‘Toughest’ Choice of His Life

NEW YORK — Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said the offseason offer he received to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers was the “toughest” choice he ever had to make.

“I’ve got to admit, it was the toughest decision I’ve had in my coaching career just because of the opportunity,” Izzo said Friday.

“Not only to be a head coach in the NBA, and a lot of money to be honest with you, but also the thought of being able to maybe coach a LeBron James, one of the greatest players who ever played. So it was tough. I gave it a good look. I have no regrets. I did what I wanted to do and I appreciate that I had the opportunity.”

Izzo made the comments at Howard Garfinkel’s “Clinic to End All Clinics” at Manhattan College, where he was joined by UConn coach Jim Calhoun, Villanova coach Jay Wright, Rutgers women’s coach C. Vivian Stringer and Boston Celtics assistant Lawrence Frank.

Izzo, who has led the Spartans to six NCAA Final Fours and the 2000 National Championship, said he never spoke directly with King James in June about possibly taking the job. James had yet to announce his “Decision” to play for the Miami Heat.

“I did not speak with [James],” Izzo said. “I spoke with some of the guys in his camp. I felt comfortable. I thought he was coming back. I made the decision thinking he was coming back, but didn’t know for sure. But it worked out for him. I feel a little bad for Cleveland.”

Asked if he was surprised that James chose Miami, Izzo said: “It did, it did, to be honest with you. I thought he’d stay there. But knowing all the behind-the-scenes things, who knows?”

Izzo also said he thought James’ departure would hurt the economies in Cleveland and Akron.

“I don’t think there’s any question it’s going to hurt that a lot,” he said. “Small-market teams, it’s very important that you have that star and now that he’s gone it’s going to probably impact it, for sure.”

As for his current team, Sparty returns an experienced core from last year’s Final Four team in Delvon Roe, Kalin Lucas, Durrell Summers and Draymond Green, but the Spartans  have battled the injury bug.

Lucas’  suffered an Achilles’ tendon injury during the NCAA tournament.

“He’s doing OK,” Izzo said. “He’s just starting to go full-go. It’s been six months.”

As for Roe, Izzo said the junior is “much improved. He’s been injured his whole career and it looks like for the first time in three years he’ll be healthy, so knock on wood.”

Freshman big man Adreian Payne missed four months with a separated shoulder and is only recently back. Garrick Sherman, a sophomore big, missed a month after undergoing surgery to remove screws from a broken foot suffered earlier. And Summers was unable to play with the USA Basketball Select Team because of a sprained knee.

“We got a chance to be real good,” Izzo said. “We got a lot of guys back. we have some good freshman coming in.

“We’ve had an injury back. We’ve had like three or four major injuries that have been three/four months or longer. And with that, you don’t know how fast they’ll come back. Our preseason schedule is brutal, including Syracuse out here [for the Jimmy V Classic Dec. 7 at Madison Square Garden].”

Michigan State also visits defending NCAA champion and preseason No. 1 Duke in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge Dec. 1.

“We play them at their place, so our schedule’s bad,” Izzo said. “I think Duke is the best team out there right now. I think they’re ahead of most.”

FREE THROWS

Oak Hill (Va.) point guard Quinn Cook will take an unofficial to Duke on Saturday for the Alabama football game…Jerome Madden, father of Arkansas point guard Ky Madden, said the UConn home visit was “great in general.” Madden begins an official to Arkansas today (Friday)…Mount Vernon point guard Jabarie Hinds said both UConn and UCLA told him during their in-home visits “that they really want me and all that good stuff.” He landed Friday in Vegas for an official to UNLV…Matt Goren, an adviser to Findlay Prep wing Amir Garrett, said Garrett will visit Oregon and St. John’s “this month.”

Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter