CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It was 4 1/2 years ago that Mike Gansey and Amy Thome were married.

At the time, Gansey was a young guy in the Cavaliers front office. So was Koby Altman.

This was in 2014 when LeBron James had returned to the Cavs.

David Griffin was the general manager. Altman was one of two assistants to Griffin. The other was Trent Redden, who also was ahead of Altman on the front office depth chart.

And Gansey?

He was “Director of Development League Operations/Basketball Operations Assistant,” according to the Cavs 2014-15 media guide. Gansey and Altman had both been hired by former Cavs GM Chris Grant in 2012.

On to the August 9, 2014 wedding, where Altman was one of the guests.

So was Michigan Coach John Beilein, who was very close to Gansey. Not only did Gansey play for Beilein at West Virginia, he even lived with the Beilein family for a time.

At the wedding, Altman and Beilein talked quite a while.

The then 31-year-old Altman was not only enjoying to company of the engaging Beilein, he was learning a lot from the then 61-year-old coach.

And Altman wondered if Beilein would one day want to coach in the NBA.

It wasn’t discussed, but Altman left the wedding with a sense Beilein could be one of the few coaches who could jump directly from college to being a head coach in the NBA.

The meeting at the wedding is not why Beilein was hired as the head coach the Cavaliers on Monday.

But decisions are often based at least partly on relationships.

When Altman took over as the Cavaliers GM in the summer of 2017, Gansey was promoted to his top assistant. And that is one reason why Beilein became such a strong candidate.

Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is not afraid to look in unconventional places for a head coach. Photo by John Kuntz/cleveland.com

GILBERT’S FINGER PRINTS

When the Cavs hired Beilein on Monday, a few NBA executives told me, “This has Dan’s fingerprints all over it.”

Gilbert is a Michigan State graduate and friend of Spartans Coach Tom Izzo. In 2010, Gilbert tried to convince Izzo to become the head coach of the Cavaliers.

In 2014, Gilbert made the final decision to hire EuroLeague coach David Blatt to coach the Cavs – even though Blatt had zero experience coaching in the NBA or college.

So the surface theory is Gilbert wanted to make another of his “out of the box" hirings with the 66-year-old Beilein, who has never coached in the NBA.

That is partly correct. Gilbert owns casinos. He built his massive business empire by taking big risks at various strategic points along the way.

But this wasn’t like Gilbert hiring Blatt, who had no connection to the Cavs front office people.

The 36-year-old Gansey is considered an executive on the rise in some NBA circles. His word carries weight with the Cavs. Altman had sought out Beilein over the years where NBA people and college coaches came together.

Right after the season ended, Beilein was discussed. He had talked to the Detroit Pistons and the Orlando Magic last summer, but he stayed at Michigan.

That indicated he was interested in the NBA.

Beilein said he was never offered the Pistons job. In the same press conference, Beilein talked about Brad Stevens. A former Butler coach who jumped to the Boston Celtics, Stevens told Beilein “I’m having a blast” coaching in the NBA.

Of course, that was before Kyrie Irving exploded the team-first culture being built by Stevens.

Cleveland Cavaliers General Manager Koby Altman reached out Michigan for a college coach. Photo by John Kuntz/cleveland.com.

COACHING PROFILE

When Altman met with the media right after the Cavs 19-63 season, it sounded like he wanted a young coach who would grow with a young team.

The front office had talked to several NBA assistants who fit that profile: Jamahl Mosley, Ime Udoka, Nate Tibbetts, David Vanterpool and Jordi Fernandez were some of the names.

But as Altman and his staff discussed what they wanted from a new coach, it was the ability to teach young players. It also was a high-character guy who was emotionally stable to handle the challenges of rebuilding after LeBron James.

Beilein’s name came up.

The Cavs realized with Collin Sexton (20 years old), Ante Zizic (22), Cedi Osman (24), Larry Nance (26) and two first-round picks in 2019 -- most of the key players would be at least near the age range now being coached by Beilein at Michigan.

Beilein’s name loomed over the search as they talked to other candidates.

TWO MEETINGS

A little over a week ago, Beilein met in Ann Arbor with Altman, Gansey and several other Cavs execs – Director of Basketball Operations Brock Aller, Director of Scouting Brandon Weems, Director of Basketball Administration Andrae Patterson and Director of Analytics Jon Nichols, a Michigan grad.

Gilbert had been in contact with Beilein.

After the lengthy meeting, there was some discussion of offering Beilein the job at that point.

But the Cavs still had more coaching interviews set up, and they wanted to finish going through the list.

Altman and some others went to Denver last weekend to interview four different candidates.

At the same time, Gilbert went to Detroit for another meeting with Beilein.

The question loomed: Do you go with an inexperienced NBA assistant as head coach? Or is it better to hire a big time college coach with no NBA experience?

Who could grow faster with the team?

BIG DECISION

Beilein is a Gilbert-type hire. No one saw it coming.

Beilein took four different Division I teams to the NCAA tournament: Canisius, Richmond, West Virginia and Michigan. He is known for winning with rosters not populated with McDonalds All-Americans and Blue Chip prospects.

The Cavs believe that age would not be a negative. They want a teacher, first.

An area of concern was Beilein having double by-pass heart surgery in August of 2018, but the Cavs believe he is healthy now.

When the Cavs made a list of Beilein’s attributes, some of them were: high character, teacher, builder, creates a positive culture and an innovative, flexible coach.

Beilein would not have been the right coach for the veteran teams of the LeBron James Era. Not even for last season, when the team opened with a strange mix of older and younger players.

But the decision was made six weeks into the 2018-19 season to trade the veterans, add draft picks and go young. They doubled down on the decision to build through the draft along with a few key veterans such as Kevin Love to help the process.

Beilein was offered a 5-year contract. One NBA source told me, “Don’t how much, but I hear the dollars are big.”

It’s doubtful Beilein did this strictly for the money. He’s a mega millionaire already having coached at such a high level of college basketball for so long. His salary at Michigan was $3.8 million in 2018-19.

Rather, he wanted try to the NBA And when the Cavs offered an open door, he walked in to the biggest challenge of his long coaching life.