Mike Fratello, winner of 667 games during a 16-season NBA head coaching career, joined the YES Network in October 2008 as an analyst on the network’s Brooklyn Nets telecasts.
Fratello, known as the “Czar of the Telestrator,” also works with former YES Nets play-by-play man Marv Albert on TNT’s NBA telecasts. In the summer of 2011, Fratello coached the Ukraine National Team in EuroBasket 2011, the European Basketball Championships. In the summer of 2012, he coached the Ukraine National Team in the FIBA Eurobasket 2013 Qualifying Tournament, where the team qualified – via a 6-2 record -- for the FIBA Eurobasket 2013 Finals.
A native of Hackensack, N.J., Fratello compiled a 667-548 regular season NBA record from 1983 to 2007 while coaching the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Memphis Grizzlies.
He guided the Hawks to five post-season berths in seven seasons (1983-90) and was named NBA Coach of the Year after leading them to a 50-32 regular season record in 1985-86. Upon leaving the Hawks in 1990, Fratello was an analyst on NBC Sports’ NBA telecasts from 1990-93 and provided commentary for NBC Sports’ telecasts of the original “Dream Team” during the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. Fratello next coached the Cavs for six seasons (1993-99), with the team’s making the playoffs four times. He was an NBA postseason analyst for Turner Sports 1994-96, an NBA regular season analyst at Turner Sports from 1999-2004, and an analyst for Turner Sports during the 2007 NBA postseason. He coached the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2005 and 2006 seasons (making the post-season each year) and for the first 30 games in the 2007 season.
Fratello graduated from Montclair State College in New Jersey. His early collegiate coaching stops included assistant’s positions at Rhode Island, James Madison and Villanova. He later was an assistant coach under Hubie Brown with the Atlanta Hawks for three seasons, and the following year was an assistant under new Hawks head coach Kevin Loughery. After one year with Loughery, Fratello became an assistant coach for Hubie Brown at the New York Knicks for one season before returning to Atlanta as the head coach in 1983.
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