Dan Gilbert

[iWx]

View: https://twitter.com/MichaelRapaport/status/834947888639791104

 

[Ohio]

Was cool to see that.

 

[ACisKING]

Aside from Luxury tax spending and investing in the team and city, I appreciate Dan primarily for a few specific things.

1. I appreciate the letter post Decision. It rallied the fan base behind Gilbert and the Cavs, it perfectly expressed the way we felt as fans. I know ESPN killed him for it, but the fact he was willing to go bat for us like that is something I'll always appreciate.

2. Doing the mature thing and agreeing to S&T LeBron for all those picks. Would have been easy to say fuck you LeBron, you're not gonna use me to get paid an extra dime! But we got honestly a really great deal for a guy who announced publicly where he was signing. It really fucked Miami over in the long run too, they had trouble adding to that team partially because they sent us a bunch of future picks just to pay Bron a little bit more money. Plus, maybe Bron never comes back if Gilbert decided to be extra petty and screw Bron out of money.

3. Manning up and making things right with LeBron to bring him back. It was a no brainer but doing it properly wasn't easy.

4. Finally, and most importantly....While the Cavs were literally the worst team in the league, fresh off multiple years of big salary/paying the tax...Dan Gilbert basically bought us an unprotected lottery pick, because Baron Davis contract was , at the time , the worst contract in the league . I remember a lot of people even arguing with me on here that Dan overpaid monetarily for the likely #8 pick on the draft because the true cost was like 20 or 30 million dollars or something. But obviously that pick turned into Kyrie, which was awesome and made the Cavs worth watching even in the bad years , and without Kyrie I really don't know if LeBron comes back.....Even if he does...Without Kyrie we probably don't win the title! That's one of the greatest trades of all time still. Made all of this possible.


Thanks Dan.

I think Gilbert's one of the best owners in the NBA. As a fan of a team with one of the two worst owners in the NBA (the other being Ranadive), I feel like having an incompetent owner up top is the kind of anchor that no franchise can overcome. And Gilbert willingness to spend well into the tax empowers your team and your GM to act in ways that most other teams simply can't.

I do, however, fundamentally disagree with your comments on the letter though. I get how maybe it appealed to your fan base, but I can tell you that outside of Ohio, it actually made Gilbert look as bad as Lebron post-Decision. His Comic Sans letter was unprofessional and reflected poorly on both Gilbert and your franchise. While it may have been intended to paint LeBron in a poor light, it actually just made it seem that he was justified in leaving an owner who would react like that. And Gilbert's comments that "the self-proclaimed King won't win before the Cavs" (I'm paraphrasing here) actually proved to be flat out wrong (in fact it was the Cavs who were awful without LeBron). Contrast Gilbert's letter with OKC and how professionally they handled Durant's departure from ownership to Presti to Donavan.

To this day, I'm still amazed that Gilbert and James were able to bury the hatchet. They each committed huge PR blunders that clearly wounded the other person. But they both proved to be bigger men than I would have been in their shoes and did what was best for both of them by reuniting. And they have one of the most memorable title in league history to show for their willingness to bury the hatchet and move on. So good for them both.

 

[ACisKING]

Also it's sad that Dan Gilbert shows more respect to Charles Oakley than the Knicks franchise that Oakley played his ass off for a decade.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

I think Gilbert's one of the best owners in the NBA. As a fan of a team with one of the two worst owners in the NBA (the other being Ranadive), I feel like having an incompetent owner up top is the kind of anchor that no franchise can overcome. And Gilbert willingness to spend well into the tax empowers your team and your GM to act in ways that most other teams simply can't.

I do, however, fundamentally disagree with your comments on the letter though. I get how maybe it appealed to your fan base, but I can tell you that outside of Ohio, it actually made Gilbert look as bad as Lebron post-Decision. His Comic Sans letter was unprofessional and reflected poorly on both Gilbert and your franchise. While it may have been intended to paint LeBron in a poor light, it actually just made it seem that he was justified in leaving an owner who would react like that. And Gilbert's comments that "the self-proclaimed King won't win before the Cavs" (I'm paraphrasing here) actually proved to be flat out wrong (in fact it was the Cavs who were awful without LeBron). Contrast Gilbert's letter with OKC and how professionally they handled Durant's departure from ownership to Presti to Donavan.

To this day, I'm still amazed that Gilbert and James were able to bury the hatchet. They each committed huge PR blunders that clearly wounded the other person. But they both proved to be bigger men than I would have been in their shoes and did what was best for both of them by reuniting. And they have one of the most memorable title in league history to show for their willingness to bury the hatchet and move on. So good for them both.

We will agree to disagree on the letter. And I really dont care how it made him or the Cavs look to anyone. As a fan, I loved it. Cleveland vs. the World, fuck everybody else!

 

[dark2332]

We will agree to disagree on the letter. And I really dont care how it made him or the Cavs look to anyone. As a fan, I loved it. Cleveland vs. the World, fuck everybody else!

I agree with you 1000% about the letter and it doesn't get talked about enough, frankly. There's far too much hate for it.

I'd like to think that I'm an educated man, and reading that letter, I know those were naive empty promises. There was no way we were going to beat the King to a ring.

But we are Ohioans, Clevelanders, and we were going through a terrible breakup essentially. That hot girl out of our league that we somehow bagged was dumping us, and we were left with nothing. It felt like that kind of pain for us.

So, this billionaire owner, an educated man, made a public comment. You'd think it would have been typical, rehearsed, and stale. Despite the punkass "Decision" announcement, I expected Gilbert to be politically correct and take the high road. Thank LeBron for his time, and that's that.

And then I began to read. And next thing I know, I'm inside the soul of a billionaire who feels exactly how I do. He's being irrational, he's pissed, and he's pouring his heart on his sleeve. Is he making empty promises? You're damn fucking right he is, and he doesn't care. That man was sitting in the trenches with us. He became one of us. He didn't care about his publicity or how it would impact his business, he's one of us, a guy working a hard 40+ every week and living through his favorite team. He felt the same pain. He lashed out. He said the things we were thinking and wishing.

So, I love Dan Gilbert. The letter was not savvy. It was not classy. It was taken poorly nationally. It was petty. It was ranting. It was irrational. But I do not give one single fuck. It was raw, and I needed it raw. We needed it raw. Dan is one of us, and that low time following the "breakup", he was hurting with us.

So, the nation can point and laugh at him, much like they do Cleveland in general. They can bring it up and say he was foolish. I point back to it and I say that was the very moment that I found out how much Dan cared about us. And if I saw him in a bar, I'd want to buy him a beer for that letter.

 

[LeShaq]

 

[Huber.]

Looking for Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert - people opposed to arena deal head to Detroit: Mark Naymik

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Delivering on an earlier promise, members of the Greater Cleveland Congregations are heading to Detroit to find Cavs owner Dan Gilbert.

Three buses full of members from churches across Cuyahoga County left Cleveland at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. They hope to deliver a letter to Gilbert at the headquarters of his mortgage company, Quicken Loans, which is based in the Motor City.

The group has been calling on the governments of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County to match the millions of dollars they plan to spend on renovations for Quicken Loans Arena renovations on neighborhood development.

The group is led by the Rev. Dr. Jawanza Colvin, pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, and James Pearlstein, the lead organizer for the Greater Cleveland Congregations. They plan to meet up with the Detroit Regional Interfaith Voice for Equity (DRIVE), a community organizing group, at the Quicken Loans headquarters.

Cleveland faith leaders and church members have rallied for weeks outside The Q and spoken at several Cuyahoga County Council meetings. County Council has been asked to approve legislation to sell $140 million in bonds for the project. Cleveland City Council introduced legislation Monday night that would authorize use of Cleveland tax dollars for the deal.

In December, the Cleveland Cavaliers and county and city leaders announced a plan to upgrade the 22-year-old arena. If approved, the plan will cost a total of $282 million over 17 years, with loan interest and creation of a sports reserve fund. Taxes will pay for $160 million.

http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/ind...gil.html#incart_most-commented_browns_article

 

[shoes22]

Looking for Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert - people opposed to arena deal head to Detroit: Mark Naymik

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Delivering on an earlier promise, members of the Greater Cleveland Congregations are heading to Detroit to find Cavs owner Dan Gilbert.

Three buses full of members from churches across Cuyahoga County left Cleveland at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. They hope to deliver a letter to Gilbert at the headquarters of his mortgage company, Quicken Loans, which is based in the Motor City.

The group has been calling on the governments of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County to match the millions of dollars they plan to spend on renovations for Quicken Loans Arena renovations on neighborhood development.

The group is led by the Rev. Dr. Jawanza Colvin, pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, and James Pearlstein, the lead organizer for the Greater Cleveland Congregations. They plan to meet up with the Detroit Regional Interfaith Voice for Equity (DRIVE), a community organizing group, at the Quicken Loans headquarters.

Cleveland faith leaders and church members have rallied for weeks outside The Q and spoken at several Cuyahoga County Council meetings. County Council has been asked to approve legislation to sell $140 million in bonds for the project. Cleveland City Council introduced legislation Monday night that would authorize use of Cleveland tax dollars for the deal.

In December, the Cleveland Cavaliers and county and city leaders announced a plan to upgrade the 22-year-old arena. If approved, the plan will cost a total of $282 million over 17 years, with loan interest and creation of a sports reserve fund. Taxes will pay for $160 million.

http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/ind...gil.html#incart_most-commented_browns_article

This group wants Cleveland City Council and government to match the bonds they plan to give for the arena renovations...so they’re driving to Detroit? What?

 

[PinkFlame]

The only thing that should be hated about that letter is the fact he used Comic-Sans

 

[czvo]

Loved the letter right after it was released, can't stand it now.

I understand the reasoning behind liking it because I felt it at the time too. But hindsight being what it is, there was a way to rally that sentiment without coming off as petty and childish as the letter ultimately was.

 

[Lee]

I agree with you 1000% about the letter and it doesn't get talked about enough, frankly. There's far too much hate for it.

I'd like to think that I'm an educated man, and reading that letter, I know those were naive empty promises. There was no way we were going to beat the King to a ring.

But we are Ohioans, Clevelanders, and we were going through a terrible breakup essentially. That hot girl out of our league that we somehow bagged was dumping us, and we were left with nothing. It felt like that kind of pain for us.

So, this billionaire owner, an educated man, made a public comment. You'd think it would have been typical, rehearsed, and stale. Despite the punkass "Decision" announcement, I expected Gilbert to be politically correct and take the high road. Thank LeBron for his time, and that's that.

And then I began to read. And next thing I know, I'm inside the soul of a billionaire who feels exactly how I do. He's being irrational, he's pissed, and he's pouring his heart on his sleeve. Is he making empty promises? You're damn fucking right he is, and he doesn't care. That man was sitting in the trenches with us. He became one of us. He didn't care about his publicity or how it would impact his business, he's one of us, a guy working a hard 40+ every week and living through his favorite team. He felt the same pain. He lashed out. He said the things we were thinking and wishing.

So, I love Dan Gilbert. The letter was not savvy. It was not classy. It was taken poorly nationally. It was petty. It was ranting. It was irrational. But I do not give one single fuck. It was raw, and I needed it raw. We needed it raw. Dan is one of us, and that low time following the "breakup", he was hurting with us.

So, the nation can point and laugh at him, much like they do Cleveland in general. They can bring it up and say he was foolish. I point back to it and I say that was the very moment that I found out how much Dan cared about us. And if I saw him in a bar, I'd want to buy him a beer for that letter.

I hated the letter the minute Dan wrote. Life time Cleveland Sports fan and I was pissed. But i live in AZ now and I saw the letter for what it was, I pissed off man with a Napoleon Complex showing zero class. It was worse than Lebron's stupid tv show about the decision, and that was horrible too.

But, 2 wrongs just dont make a right.

 

[Ohio]

The letter was real. Loved it then and have no reason to feel differently now. It's ancient history and literally has no affect on this franchise moving forward. And any negative affect people thought it had clearly didn't matter nearly as much as they wanted it to.

So funny to think people actually thought LeBron would never come back because of that letter As if LeBron would forget the main thing (winning titles) for some fake sense of pride. Not even hindsight, was saying it for awhile before he came back; Gilbert was a positive to luring LeBron back here because of his deep pockets.; especially after experiencing Arison being a cheapass. There was no way LeBron was going to continue playing for an owner like that unless the roster situation was real good (like the Heat was when they formed).

 

[The Oi]

LeBron sticks his dick up Warrior anuses for Dan Gilbert's Cavs.

I have the feeling that Gilbert is a bit more of an asshole behind the scenes than we assume. We already know LeBron is.

These guys provide us with an entertaining product that we consume. IDGAF about the letter.

I just want to see the Cavs destroy other teams in the playoffs, win championships and for Gilbert to keep paying for it even if both are dickheads, which I think they both are.

 

[Huber.]

Start complaining about a billionaire taking money from plebs to renovate his arena. I didn't bump this thread for you guys to discuss the letter.

@PIP @The Oi @Deezus