Dear Dan Gilbert

Caption: Am I f*cking up??

via The New York Times:

Cleveland fans, you can still hold your heads high: The curse has been lifted! Or so the Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert asserts, in an open letter to “Cleveland, all of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers supporters wherever you may be tonight.”

While some in the city and state that once hailed LeBron James as “king” burned his jerseys, Gilbert promised a much brighter future while simultaneously chastising and berating James for his “cowardly betrayal” of his hometown fans.

“But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called ‘curse’ on Cleveland, Ohio,” Gilbert wrote, noting that the “self-titled former ‘king” will be taking the bad luck and karma with him to South Beach. With the “curse” on its way to Miami, Cleveland is now primed to win a championship, in Gilbert’s eyes. In all capital letters, in the middle of the letter, Gilbert made a vow to Cavaliers fans everywhere:

“I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE.”

Cleveland, Gilbert says, won’t just live on, it will prosper. Its children won’t have the image of a selfish role model draped over their arenas, and its front offices will be working harder than ever to win a championship against James.

As everyone is sitting there hating LeBron on the Heat, and raising their blood pressure over a deal that sealed basketball future, it would be easy to write about LeBron. However, the media firestorm, combined with the entire experience of the LeBronathon sickened me, so I'm not writing a part 2 to the previous letter. Instead we're going to take a look at you, Dan Gilbert. The owner that gave up the best player in the NBA.

I can't think of ANY time in the NBA when a team would allow, not only their best player to walk in free agency, but the best player in the NBA, and the world! Dan, you really dropped the ball on this one. The Cavaliers have had 7 (count em; 7) seasons to win an NBA Championship with LeBron James. That's 7 different seasons and 7 different chances to win. In NBA years, that's a long time. Dynasties are forged within 2-3 years. We're watching the end of one (sorry Lakers) and the beginning of a dynasty of endless epic proportions. The fact that you had well over twice that time to build a championship-caliber team around LeBron is sad. In those 7 years, I can't think of one season where James had a legitimate 2nd option on the team. Signing Larry Hughes was a joke and Mo Williams can't produce in the postseason. Not to mention, Antawn Jamison never can cut it in crunch time. Everytime your team won, it was because LeBron did something extraordinarily skilled or inhumanly athletic, not because someone else contributed consistently. Therefore, you can't ever be mad that he left to get some support (I think he went for broke for no reason, but that's another letter) around him. LeBron might have taken the easy way out, but can you blame him?

Your letter to the fans sounded like an angry ex-girlfriend who's ex-boyfriend upgraded significantly. It sounded like you were trying to find any conceivable way to speak ill of that person, regardless of whether you did right by them or not. What's worse is that you guaranteed a title before the Heat. You can't promise that!! What crystal ball were you looking into? Dan, you do realize that the your team, the Cavs have NOBODY on the squad. You guys won't be competing in the Eastern Conference for a long time. The Heat are a juggernaut, and they only have 4 players on their roster. The Celtics just re-upped with Jermaine O'Neal, the Bulls got better with Boozer and the Magic are still the Magic. Not to mention, the rest of the East is getting better. All that, combined with the fact that LeBron tried to smooth his move to Miami over with apologies, made you flip. That doesn't mean you should write angry letters to fans bashing the man. Seriously... Who tries to put a hex on a player leaving his team? Did you sit there at home and prick your LeBron James voodoo doll? Had you simply expressed remorse, or sounded optimistic (neither would truly make a difference, anyway), you wouldn't look like an ass now or have to start from square one with the Cavaliers and with Cleveland. Hope your wallets will be okay as Cleveland's economy rapidly declines and the Cavs don't make the playoffs for another 15 years...

First this, and now LeBron leaves?? Maybe Cleveland just isn't meant to win...