Dan Gilbert's Open Letter

[Dr Z]

what's surprising?

I thought it was pretty obvious with the topic title and date, but I'll expand. An owner can write an ignorant letter about the best player in the league, and the best player in the league comes back to his team years later to try to win a championship. I understand the reasoning, but considering what happened five years ago, I'm surprised how it played out. It makes me smile as to how LBJ can hold Gilbert over the fire by signing one year contracts each year. It's also beneficial to Cavs fans that the same owner is trying to buy a championship by spending tons of money to appease the same player he publicly insulted. Considering the topic title and date, if anybody could have predicted the events in the past year, you are better at predicting than me. I'm surprised. Considering the posts from the beginning of this thread, I'm betting I'm not the only one.

[LZIp]

I thought it was pretty obvious with the topic title and date, but I'll expand. An owner can write an ignorant letter about the best player in the league, and the best player in the league comes back to his team years later to try to win a championship. I understand the reasoning, but considering what happened five years ago, I'm surprised how it played out. It makes me smile as to how LBJ can hold Gilbert over the fire by signing one year contracts each year. It's also beneficial to Cavs fans that the same owner is trying to buy a championship by spending tons of money to appease the same player he publicly insulted. Considering the topic title and date, if anybody could have predicted the events in the past year, you are better at predicting than me. I'm surprised. Considering the posts from the beginning of this thread, I'm betting I'm not the only one.

I don't really care to debate the past. It's a polarizing topic and peopl's opinions of it arent going to change no matter how much it is debated. That's water under the bridge for everyone involved.

LBJ is a Cav for the rest of his career and you can take that to the bank. He isn't holding Gilbert over the fire. If you noticed, there were no talks that had any substance that he might leave again. Lebron is signing the short contracts to benefit himself because of the cap increases this season (9 mil I think i read) and the upcoming CBA which is projected to increase the salary cap substantially due to a massive increase in TV rights. Lebron's max contract is based on a percentage of the cap. Holding Gilbert over the fire would be refusing to sign until TT got paid and paid BIG.

Is Gilbert spending a ton of money to appease Lebron or to appease himself/the franchise/the fanbase? Nothing he has done so far would make me think its to appease Lebron. Shump deserved what he got. K Love deserved what he got. TT is to be determined. If he gets something around 4yr/80 as reported, then I will conced that move is for Lebron. (Lebron and TT both have Rich Paul as their agent). I think he's worth something in the 12-15 mil/year range. That might even be too generous.

If there were anything to be surprised about, it would be what happened a year ago tomorrow. Not anything of recent. Just my opinion.

[Dave in Green]

I don't think there's any surprise in the fact that people routinely misconstrue the actions and motives of others. We have a tendency to assume that others fit a set of familiar blueprints by which we can interpret and predict their thoughts and actions. While we all may share some common traits to varying degrees, there are real differences in individuals. When we're surprised by someone it's just a sign that our assumption glands were working overtime. Age and experience can help generate varying degrees of wisdom to counter our worst assumptions. There will be fewer surprises in our lives if we come to believe in the old saying, never say never and never say always.

[Zip_ME87]

People also make mistakes as the old saying goes..."live and learn". Those who are smart enough to not hold grudges tend to lead more pleasant lives. Plenty of mistakes were made, but there is no reason to dwell on them. I believe both LeBron and Dan are focussed on the same goal of bringing an NBA championship to Ohio. Both are smart businessmen and both are benefitting. While I couldn't have predicted how this is playing out, I always thought that LeBron wouldn't find winning championships as satisfying in Miami as he may have thought. Once you have a ring or two, does it really matter how many more you obtain. No matter anyone's opinion. LeBron has proven how great a player he is. I believe that continuing to support his hometown and bringing even just 1 championship to Cleveland would leave him a greater legacy than he could garner anywhere else. However I felt about the way he left, I no longer care nor even think about it. I'm happy he returned, and I hope he and the Cavaliers win a championship ... not for me, but for LeBron. I want him to have that legacy.