Defending Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert

As everyone knows by now, a few days ago Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert posted a nasty letter on the Cavaliers website about LeBron James signing with the Miami Heat. While ESPN and every NBA sports writer in America is roasting Gilbert with pineapple and teriyaki, one aspect of this whole debacle still hasn’t been talked about enough. Here it is.

To the sports writers of America: Your opinion doesn’t matter.

To backyard critics: Your opinion doesn’t matter.

Don’t tell a sports writer or self-proclaimed sports wizard that lives around the corner that their opinion doesn’t matter though, or they’ll roast you too. It’s like a boys club for drones who think they’re important.

With this article, I’m going to jump in the fire pit with Gilbert because I’m tired of those whiny pussies who think athletes and owners owe them something. Athletes are entertainers. Owners dictate the quality of the entertainment. Just as LeBron James has the right to create his own dream team, Dan Gilbert has the right to express his feelings about it – whether you like those feelings or not.

Here’s why Dan Gilbert doesn’t deserve what he’s getting. Dan Gilbert owns the Cleveland Cavaliers, and one of most important tasks as owner of a major sports franchise it to engage the people who pay the bills. Those are the Cavaliers fans. Not sports writers. Not you. Not the idiot at work.

While everyone else was busy dissecting every word Gilbert wrote, I was thinking about the years I spent growing up in Los Angeles, thinking about Georgia Frontiere – the worst owner in LA professional sports history.

When I was a kid, the Los Angeles Rams sucked. Wait, no they weren’t that good. They were terrible. The reason they were terrible was because Georgia Frontiere didn’t care about winning. To ‘ol Georgia, a football was a waste of pigskin, something that should be made into a purse or an expensive pair of shoes.

The fans knew it, and after several years of unkept promises, the fans stopped showing up. Why should they show up? When you know your owner isn’t trying to win, why spend your hard earned money to go to a game? When fans stopped showing up, Georgia proclaimed the fans to be the problem, and she moved the team to St. Louis. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

So here I am reading Gilbert’s unfiltered, off the top of his head tirade about LeBron James leaving town thinking ‘this guy has heart’. You don’t have to agree with his words, but the undeniable passion can’t be argued. This passion is something any real fan in America would love see from the owners of their teams. You think the Pittsburgh Pirates fans would love it if Gilbert bought their miserable team? I bet they would.

The issue isn’t whether LeBron had the right to leave, or even about the shitty way he left, without even calling Gilbert before his 1 hour ‘special’ on ESPN. It’s about Dan Gilbert telling his fans that he cares about the team, and that he’s committed to making this team a winner. Winning is why we watch.

That is what this is about.

If I were a Cavaliers fan, I’d be happy to know that he cares enough to leave it all on the table, and to speak to us in the way he thinks. It’s about the fans.

If the fans like what he said, he did the right thing. Gilbert has no reason to make Knicks fans, Bulls fans, or the fans of any other team happy. He has no reason to make other team owners happy. It’s about the Cavaliers fans, and them only.

If you’re not a Cavaliers fan, you don’t matter. You don’t go to Cav’s games. You don’t buy Delonte West jerseys. You don’t buy overpriced hot dogs and beer at the games, season tickets, license plate frames or bobbleheads. You don’t matter. Get over yourself.

With so many owners who clearly do not put winning as the number 1 goal, I find Gilbert’s comments refreshing. Not because of the words, but because he expressed his feelings without watering them down to keep people who don’t matter (anyone not of a Cav’s fan) happy. Political correctness in sports? Please.

He didn’t kill dogs. He didn’t carry a loaded weapon into a locker room. He didn’t get a DUI or hit his wife. He spoke frankly about what was on his mind. Like those words or not is up to you, but you cannot argue his passion for the team and his commitment to Cav’s fans. And for that, he has my respect.