The basketball manager was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, on September 16, 1982. He attended Middlebury College as a Posse Foundation Scholar; while there, Koby Altman played college basketball, as previously mentioned, serving as the team’s starting point guard for three years.
Upon his college graduation, Koby got into the business of real estate investment sales and later enrolled in the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) from where he bagged a master’s degree in sports management. While at it, he worked for two seasons as an assistant coach at Amherst College, Massachusetts, and contributed to guiding the team to a record of 48-11, over two seasons.
Career
After he concluded his master’s program, the Brooklyn, New York native, stuck to college coaching for many years, starting with Southern Illinois as a graduate assistant for the 2009-10 season. Subsequently, he worked as a full-time assistant at the Ivy League Columbia University for two seasons. At Columbia, he also impressively led the school’s developmental basketball program.
The basketball executive has gained a lot of experiences with the USA Basketball program. In the year 2009, he assisted the USA’s Under-19 basketball team during the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Under-19 World Championship which took place in Auckland, New Zealand and with his help, the squad won its first gold medal in that age bracket since 1991.
In the summer of 2010, Koby Altman took part in the inaugural FIBA Under-17 World Championship in Hamburg, Germany, serving as the Team Manager for the United States of America Under-17 team. With his help, the team also became the first for that age group to be awarded a gold medal, and also featured three players among the top ten to be picked in the National Basketball Association Draft of 2012.
In August 2012, Koby Altman joined the Cleveland Cavaliers. Before he was named the General Manager of the basketball team, he had been a part of the team for 5 years. He joined them as Pro Personnel Manager and in September 2013, he was promoted to the position of Director of Pro Player Personnel where he was saddled with the responsibility of evaluating athlete’s talent across all levels of basketball, both locally and internationally. He also coordinated the domestic professional scouting efforts of the team in addition to assisting in every other aspect of the team’s basketball operations.
In September 2016, he was promoted to Assistant General Manager and finally, on July 24, 2017, he was named the general manager in Cleveland Cavaliers. Being a member of the Cavaliers front office, Koby Altman has been a fundamental part of a team that has made it to four consecutive NBA Finals (from 2015-2018) and emerged winner of the 2016 NBA Championship. With him as the General Manager in the 2017-18 season, the Cavaliers earned the Central Division crown with a record of 50-32 (.610) and won the Eastern Conference Finals, resulting to the team’s advancement to their fourth NBA Finals in a row.
As the General Manager, Koby Altman was determined to take the team to new heights. The first set of players he acquired are point guard Isaiah Thomas, center Ante Žižić, small forward Jae Crowder, and a 2020 second-round pick from the Boston Celtics exchanged for star point guard Kyrie Irving. In his second major move in September 2017, the GM signed Dwyane Wade, a three-time NBA Champion, and multiple-time All-Star guard. In February 2018, he also made a number of trades that saw the team receiving Rodney Hood, George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr.
