Dude. Open letter from Cavs owner...

[Mojambo]

He doesn't pull any punches.

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/gilbert_letter_100708.html

[SunnySong]

1. Holy Fuck nice letter... your right he calls out the scum. nt

[OhioChick]

2. Good n/t

[Seneca]

3. Much as I despise LeBron and his ego

He made the smart move.

It's a business, and he made a wise business decision.

And Gilbert failed to give LeBron the personnel support he needed to win a championship.

His letter is whiny and self-serving. No wonder they never won it all. I don't blame LeBron for high-tailing it out of there. Who would want to play for such a crybaby like that?

The 'guarantee' is a joke.

I have never loved Jerry Buss and Mitch Kupchak more than I do now.

[Ikonoklast]

11. Gilbert bent over backwards giving LeBron everything he asked for.

He fired the coach and GM fer chrissakes, and gave all of LeBron's hangers-ons jobs with the organization.

Gilbert did everything but fellate him on national tv, and LeBron doesn't even have the class to give the man a personal call about his decision, or have one of his people call...hell, Gilbert found out the same way everyone else did.

[MadBadger]

4. So because he signed a contract somewhere else, he betrayed Cleveland? LOL

Sure it was a narcissistic and egotistical thing to do (the whole special), but because he signed a contract to another team, something done quite often in sports, he betrayed Cleveland? Talk about delusional.

Oh, and if he wants to make good on that promise, I suggest he get a team together that can win next year

[Bennyboy]

5. Somebody call the Whaaaaambulance...

But he is right, LeBron won't win a championship...

[rcrush]

14. Not with the Heat he won't.

[rurallib]

6. Having watched pro sports for many, many years and seen

many, many players dumped like yesterday's garbage as quickly as possible when skills erode, I bear no grudge to LeBron James for getting what he can while he can. I have never begrudged an employee for getting a good wage.
And the whole money aspects of this deal with the way the gap between the rich and the rest of us just makes me want to puke.
I seldom watch any pro anything any more. Watch any pro basketball game and the ten players on the floor probably bring home as much as 10,000 average wage workers together. And the owner is way more fabulously wealthy than the help.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. +1

I would rather watch little league or high school, even college sports have gotten out of hand.

[rurallib]

8. 7th grade girls basketball is about the funnest thing I ever watched.

you'll see stuff there you will never, never see anywhere else.

[Redstone]

9. Who the fuck cares? It's a GAME, for Chrissakes.

Redstone

[OhioBlue]

26. A lot of people care.

It might not matter to you, but it does to most of NE Ohio. It broke my heart to see all the little old ladies in his "granny fan club" crying. It also breaks my heart for all the kids that looked up to him and are now finding out has sold out and stuck a knife in the heart of the community.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. It's a funny letter, but sad and symbolic of our fucked up country.

He actually thinks that some sports-playing fuck can betray an entire community by going to play his sports fuck game in some other community?

This is what America has come down to?

The geographic positioning of some sports fuck actually matters this cosmically much?

No wonder Shrubbie never got impeached or in trouble for any of his betrayal - we've reloaded the language and our social discourse so much that politicians apparently are incapable of a betrayal, and only sports fucks can, because politicians can only sell our country to some other country, or to a corporation, or abuse the Constitution to the point it needs surgery, but - HOLY GOD IN HEAVEN! - a sports fuck can commit REAL betrayal by GOING SOMEPLACE THAT WILL PAY HIM MORE!!!!!!!!!

How goddamn sad is that?

Fucking ludicrous.

[AngryOldDem]

16. Yes, he **can** betray a community.

Sometimes sports teams are all some cities have to rally behind, especially in economically depressed areas like Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. People invest a lot, both financially and emotionally, so when a hometown "hero" like James decides to up and leave, there will be anger. I think the fans would have accepted this much better had James not been such a dick about it. That was graceless and tactless, and pretty much showed what he ultimately thought of Cavs fans.

Cleveland sports fans have been through a lot over the decades. You may not like it, you may not understand it, but it is what it is.

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. If the city suffers economically because one sports fuck moved to another town,

then that's a fault of the team's owner for not putting together a team that's interesting to the locals that they'll actually go to the game; or it's a fault of the locals for not having enough loyalty to their team that they only go if there's a Big Winner Guy on the team.

Seems to me that if someone (a fan) really loves some sports dude enough to call him a "hero" (which itself is a fucking joke; playing a sport well is not heroic by any measure. Impressive, sure; but it's never heroic), they should be able to call him a "hero" and want the best for him no matter where he's playing.

Instead it all gets mixed up into a sick kind of tribalism that we laugh at African or South American tribes for showing, but we cloak it as "sports enthusiasm" so it's all okay - the fan's identity can't get beyond the tribal identification with the team, and therefore the city the team is with, and so if the team loses, then the fan him/herself must be a loser, and if the team is a winner, then that shows, BY GOD, how superior the fan is compared to fans of the loser teams.

But, Americans (apart from the Packers fans) really only like winners, and screw any kind of loyalty to whatever it is we say we're loyal to.

Was a Lebron a dick? Sure. He handled it immensely tacky and egotistically. But he got a better offer. Who can fault him for going where the money is? Most of do that in our jobs, too.

[OhioBlue]

25. He was a hero to a lot of little kids

because he gave them hope. His mom was 16 when he was born, a single mother and they spent much of his childhood in poverty. He persevered, his mother was his rock and they made it.

You see, we thought he was a good guy, that loved NE Ohio, wanted to give back to the community... a role model.... The Cavs winning seasons gave people enjoyment, made them happy if only for a moment to escape whatever they might be dealing with. If you have a tense moment in a conversation with family over politics, religion or Uncle Jake and Aunt Sally's divorce... you can switch to sports... "Did you see the shot LeBron made?"

Fans staged rallies of support for him.... The Governor and other State and Community leaders made a video asking him to stay... And.. he did NOT get a better offer. The Cavs offered him more money... The Cavs owner kissed his a$$. It turns out that he wanted to take the easy road to a championship... go to a "stacked team" so he wouldn't have to deal with the pressure. In his misguided mind, he thinks getting a ring with make him one of the "greats" but he will never be known as one of the "greats" by being #2 to Dwayne Wade.. who can be a leader.

He's been planning this for months and never told the Cavs - he had his people call right before he went on air. He strung them out to the end of free agency so now their hands are tied to make some good pick ups. He screwed the team over big and gave a big 'ol FU to Ohio.

[OmahaBlueDog]

24. The day Charlie O Finley sold Reggie Jackson to the Orioles...

....it stopped being a game and started being a business. It stopped being about teams, and started being about coaches, players, and personalities...and (of course) money.

JMHO

[Richardo]

12. Guy likes his quotation marks, I'll say that about him.

Looks like it was written by a not-too-bright 14 year old boy.

[rcrush]

13. He has a point. That whole thing was ridiculous BUT

Did they really expect Lebron to stick around? If he wants to win a championship he was going to have to leave Cleavland. I just can't believe it was hyped up so much.

Someone needs to seriously re-think the Cavaliers game plan in the future. They had Lebron and couldnt get shit done so he left. He made a big spectacle out of it but he did the right thing.



Also what kind business owner acts like this because he lost a star player his shitty team couldnt hang on to?

[Orsino]

15. "Dear Public..."

"...I didn't offer enough money to keep LeBron in Cleveland, so please hate him."

Or am I missing something?

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Ha ha ha! yes! That's it PRECISELY!!

:rofl:

Stupid fucker has a bad taste in his mouth and he's counting on the tribal ignorance of the fans to move their hatred from where it should be to a place that it doesn't belong.

The weak-minded are always led deliciously into deception by idiots who play on fear and tribalism.

[TZ]

20. Thanks for calling the city my parents

Were born in stupid. Nice. You don't know any of the facts. But hey I forgot, since it's not something that matters to you anyone who likes it must be stupid right? God, don't you ever get tired of looking down your nose at everyone?

[Rabrrrrrr]

22. I don't remember calling your parents' birth city stupid.

Gee, do you ever get tired of misreading people's posts so you can condemn them falsely?

And let us not forget your other blanket statement that I look down my nose on *everyone*. That's a pretty tall order.

[TZ]

19. You missed the point entirely actually!

Cleveland offered the most money BY FAR! They gave him everything he wanted traded for good players- fired the coach gm, hired a coach that James liked- you know why he left? Because South Beach is waay cooler than a rust belt city. So Lebron is a shallow lying jerkwad- he spent the last few weeks spewing nonsense about how much he loves his home town blah blah blah. But hey telling a whole city they suck is okay cause he's rich right?

[Orsino]

21. In other words, the owner didn't offer enough.

They've been betting it all on a shiny toy they couldn't really afford, and he still left.

But who said the city sucks? Have I missed a statement by LeBron?

[OmahaBlueDog]

23. It couldn't be that he wanted to play for a boss that has built championships?

It couldn't have been that two of the best players in the game asked him to join them and build something great?

You don't think those factors had anything to do with his decision?