Kenny Atkinson of the Cleveland Cavaliers was named NBA coach of the year after leading the team to 64 wins and 64 wins in the Eastern Conference playoffs and No. 1 seed in his first season.

Atkinson won 100 votes from the media group, beating Detroit Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff (the man he replaced) for honors. Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka ranks third.

I kept saying, “I stepped in to that,” Atkinson said to take over Bickstaff.

This is the best result of the votes of the finalists this year. For Atkinson, it was a sweep: He also won the National Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year Award, which is separate from the official NBA Award and voted by other head coaches.

"I almost broke down when I got that," Atkinson said. "Like, thinking (Rick) Carlisle voted for me, (Erik) Spoelstra voted for me... like the peak."

Atkinson won a long-term search by the Cavaliers last May and June, flying back and forth between Cleveland and France, where he was an assistant coach for the national team, for interviews. One of his main selling points to Cavaliers leaders Koby Altman and Mike Gansey is how powerful he thinks the existing Cavaliers roster is and how he thinks the way to maximize it.

The Cavaliers were on the roster and ended up having a spectacular season under Atkinson’s guidance. The team has three All-Stars - Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley - and has a devastating bench rotation with reserves Ty Jerome and De'andre Hunter.

Atkinson's biggest task is to unlock Mobley, which the Cavaliers see as key to getting team-wide improvements. Working with captain Mitchell, Atkinson re-arranged the team's rotation to ensure the two played together for more minutes. He also designed more challenges to challenge Mobley as an organizer and an outside shooter.

Mobley's three-pointer triple, averaging a career-high 18.5 points per game, was named Defensive Player of the Year in his first All-Star Game. He is a strong candidate for the first all-NBA team with Mitchell.

All of this was done by reducing the minutes of Mitchell, Mobley and center Jarrett Allen, who each played more games than they were a year ago.

In September, the Knights held in Sarasota, Florida established a key at the Knights Knights Training Camp held at IMG Academy. Atkinson and his coaching staff used a range of methods in early practice to get the Cavaliers used to play faster and various bonding techniques.

Bickerstaff led the Cavaliers to play in a row and won the first-round series last season, and his kickoff was controversial. By the beginning of the season, however, the Cavaliers had developed excellent team chemistry as Atkinson followed his promises that they had increased the size of many supporting players’ roles and reduced the workload of the stars.

The Cavaliers started 15-0 this season, grabbing the top seed of the East and never letting go. They will continue to score a 12-game winning streak and 16-game winning streak later this season and eventually swept the season from 17 different opponents, as Atkinson's load-sharing system during the team, they became the ball of destruction in the regular season.

The Cavaliers then swept the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs, setting an NBA record with a 122-point difference in four games.

Last month, Atkinson's peers named him the National Basketball Coaches Association of the Year.

The last Cavaliers coach to win the NBA coach of the year honors was Mike Brown, 2009.

The Associated Press contributed to the story.