To say that Dan Gilbert’s tirade against Lebron James was a little over the top would be a slight understatement. Jesse Jackson saw the comments typical of someone with slave master mentality. Read more.
Whoa, easy Jesse, if you start calling Gilbert the slave master word, then he’ll start calling you and Lebron that other word and things could really get messy…But Jackson does have a point. Gilbert didn’t just criticize Lebron for leaving Cleveland, he ripped him and his character to shreds. Here’s the letter in cased you missed it.
Right about now, Gilbert should be firing his publicist or whoever proofread that hate letter, because he went too far. Jackson has a huge point when he reminds Gilbert that Lebron is an employee, not a runaway slave, not someone you own or control. Once Lebron lived up to his contract obligations, which he did, he was free to test the market.
Here’s what I don’t understand. I can’t figure out why Gilbert thought Lebron would actually stay in Cleveland if indeed Lebron wants to win, which he has said several times. Let’s take a look at all the major signings the Cavs made this offseason to encourage Lebron to stay, wait a minute, there are none. Why the hell would Lebron stay? If anything, for Lebron to stay would be only for the money, which would make him as callous as Gilbert said he was for leaving. I hate to put this bluntly, but Cleveland sucks, that team is not a contender with or without Lebron and Gilbert’s management team has done nothing to change that. Maybe if they were the ones signing a Chris Bosh, or Joe Johnson or someone legitimate to make Lebron feel like he had a chance to win, that he wouldn’t have to score 40 every night for his team to win, then maybe James would have stayed.
The sad thing is, Gilbert now has bigger problems on his hands. Firstly, that tirade probably ruined any chances of a superstar player ever coming to Cleveland. Who would want to play for an owner like that? Second, Gilbert has guaranteed Cleveland fans that Cleveland will win a championship before the Heat, which sounds more like a bold faced lie. And instead of vilifying James as Gilbert clearly had hoped to do, he’s vilified himself, while James handled the situation with class. Read more.
Worse yet, now Gilbert has Jesse Jackson on his ass, which means he can forget about the support from much of the black community apart from those that work in his cotton fields. At least Gilbert will have an automatic membership to the KKK… Now that’s too far. I don’t actually think Gilbert is a slave master or a racist, but he’s left the door open for these type of attacks both on him and his organization and I hope he can take it, because he sure did dish it out. You have to know better than to try and cut down Lebron, a man with back-to-back MVP’s and enough star power to hold an hour long interview about where he will sign next.
