Is Dan Gilbert’s letter a call to action?
Lebron James
Thankfully, the Lebron fiasco has died down a little. Although most people say they understand that Lebron’s job is to play professional ball, and that a man has the right to seek out and acquire the best paying job he can to support his family, they say they are upset at ‘the way he did it.’ This refers to what some call ‘the media circus’ Lebron created just to publicly humiliate the teams that were negotiating with him.
I’m not going to comment on that. I think enough has been said already. I’m also not going to comment on Jesse Jackson’s open letter about Dan Gilbert in which he said that Gilbert’s feelings of betrayal “personify a slave master mentality.” I think enough has been said about that too.
And although I’m not going to say how I feel about Dan Gilbert and the letter he wrote to “Cleveland, All of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight,” I do want to bring to your attention one sentence in Gilbert’s letter.
Almost at the end of the letter, Gilbert wrote something that caught my attention because it didn’t flow with the tenor of the rest of the letter. He said, “Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.”
Did Gilbert use this phrase as an adage or proverb, or did he use it hoping that it would incite some wacko Cavs zealot to take it literally and contemplate harming James? Does he hate James that much?
It’s easy to argue that Gilbert was trying to give James the benefit of his wisdom, by trying to advise and warn Lebron about the rough road ahead on the way to the NBA championship, but this makes no sense when taken in context with the entire letter.
In his letter about Lebron, Gilbert mentioned James’ name only once. The rest of the time, he used the following words to describe James and his actions: former hero, narcissistic, self-promotional, disappointing, cowardly betrayal, self-titled former king, shocking act of disloyalty, shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own, chosen one, heartless and callous action. He ended his letter with this: “the self-declared former ‘King’ will be taking the ‘curse’ with him down south. And until he does ‘right’ by Cleveland and Ohio, James … will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.”
These are not the words of a wiser, kinder, older person who is simply trying to steer a young inexperienced player down the straight and narrow.
Let’s face it; people are really upset about Lebron’s decision and the events leading up to his announcement. The announcement of Lebron’s move to Miami caused Ohio’s economy to plummet even deeper into recession. The state stands to lose up to $48 million in income as a result of James’ departure. Many will lose jobs. The ramifications of James’ move are grim, but this does not justify a call to action by Gilbert.
it wouldn’t have mattered if he had told the Cavs prior to announcing it on ESPN. most people would still have found some issue with his decision. he couldn’t win for losing and that’s just life. he doesn’t owe Cleveland nor any of those other teams jacksh*t and how he chose to announce his decision is his personal choice. apparently, he already knew Dan Gilbert was a raving lunatic and wouldn’t take the news well no matter how he informed him.
i applaud Lebron for doing it HIS way and not bending/bowing to how others think he should live his life. there wasn’t anything wrong with how he announced his decision. Heck – Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles coulda seen that he was going to Heat and definitely not staying with Cleveland. all these fake fan-atics need to put this emotion into their own personal lives/situations and this world would be a much better place.
1@Marlena I agree with you 100%, people forget the fact that he is free to make any decision he wants. Majority of athletes get traded to other teams and the owner doesn’t even tell them. I find it funny how know one is asking him what makes him happy, everyone is so focused on him leaving.
In this life we live in the only people we owe are GOD, family, and friends, because they will be there for you during fame and after. I find it funny how no one mentions he raised money for the Boys and Girls club and the university of Phenix presented him with 5 scholarships to change 5 kids lives.
His decesion was his to make, but the most important part was that 5 kids are going to get a scholarship to go to school. So while the whole state of cleveland is sad, five kids somewhere are going to be very happy.
2I thin you are way off base here. I must suggest your thoughts here are as bad as
3Jesse Jackson’s, frankly worse.
@Pete May I kindly point out, sir, that you just fell off your hate-mongering bandwagon which is has all the sour grapes to your liking.
4What was to be gain by perpetrating the grand fraud?It was suppose to be about sportsmanship or so I thought.Why jerk all the people around?For what?Hell I’m glad he was a Cavs for as long as he was.We know now that they set the plan up three years ago.Why not just come out and tell the truth,I’m going when my contract is up.Character counts at least with some people.What he did was completely classless.And it is easy for me sit here and say these things,because he set his self up for this.Its call consequences.
5From all appearances, LeBron and Wade set this up three years ago. If, as they say, they didn’t want to hurt anybody, why bullshit Cleveland for three years; why not get them used to the idea of not having you around? The “way he did it” was deplorable; to torture people you supposedly care about (Cleveland/Akron) for a solid hour on national television is sadism on a high level. True, there would haved been critics no matter how he did it, but to do it like that removes any opportunity for sympathy…PEACE.
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