Obligatory “Dan Gilbert Tweets After the Heat Win the Finals” Post
2012-06-22
Great NBA season. Enjoyed playoffs. Congratulations to Miami & OKC for an exciting Finals. Back to work on next weeks promising Cavs draft.
It’s a polite tweet. It notably doesn’t acknowledge that LeBron and the Heat won the NBA title, but it’s polite nonetheless. I also enjoyed this NBA season. (Though not as much as last year. The lockout hurt the quality of play during the regular season, and the playoffs got off to a rough start due to all the early injuries. Regardless, the Conference and NBA Finals were terrific. A really high level of basketball was on display during those series.) I’m very sad it’s over. I use the summer as an opportunity to recede fully into my other interests, but I’m not sure I like anything more than watching, thinking about, and writing about the best basketball league in the world. I’ll be a happier person when late October arrives, and I can watch the NBA three to five nights a week.
I’m not going to comment extensively on this tweet or the implications of this Miami title. (Trust, I’ve written enough about LBJ, indirectly or otherwise.) If it’s any consolation to you, The Blog readers, I make a very conscious choice, when Bron-related things happen, to write or not write about them. My decision is usually based on whether or not I feel I have something valuable or interesting to add to the conversation; mostly because I’m aware of how strange it is to write about a player who left one’s team two full years ago, regardless of the inextricable ties he has to the Cavalier organization. After mulling things over a bit, I have nothing unique or of substance to say about LeBron’s first title, at least not in the context of a blog about the Cleveland Cavaliers. But I’m also aware this Heat Finals victory is an event that makes some Cavs fans angry/sad/conflicted/etc., and so I feel obligated to provide you guys with a space to talk about it.
Do me a favor, though: keep it civil in the comment section. As much as “[expletive] LeBron” might be cathartic, it’s not terribly intelligent or useful.
As much as I wanted to see Lebron win a championship in a Cavs uniform, I can’t help but be happy for him and still root for him when he’s not playing the Cavs. Other than his messy exit, he’s been the kind of superstar we all say we want: unselfish, hardworking, and a positive force off the court. I just hope that once he’s done with Miami, he comes back and pairs up with Kyrie and the rest of a talented young squad to bring us a championship too. The league is entering a new Golden Age with all… Read more »
Does anyone else feel like the Heat winning is good for the Cavs in the long run? If LBJ doesnt win the title, doesnt Gilbert demand a ton of high dollar free agents, and go for broke now instead of riding it out and looking toward the future, as we now should be doing?
Lebron is too talented of a player to never win a title. He changed this season. Perhaps it was his own personal failure in last years finals. He was the reason the Heat lost to the Mavericks.
Also to the Gilbert bashers on here all of the sudden: Dan Gilbert is a self made billionaire who went to a state school and Mickey Arison is a trust fund baby who dropped out of college.
Oh wow, thanks Scuzz. That put me in such a better mood. Still love me some Windy.
I was happy to see LeBron win the title after he played so very well in that series. I feel like we finally have 2 stars of the caliber of Bird & Magic in LeBron and Durant and I look forward to a few years of a great rivalry. Hopefully the Cavs will be building into a contender while that is playing itself out.
It’s very satisfying that LeBron had to get to a humbler, more family oriented place in his life before he could win it all.
For those of you who’d like to get a better perspective on this, I highly recommend listening to Brian Windhorst’s interview with WKNR today. It also has draft into to boot.
http://www.espncleveland.com/page.php?page_id=109
Just making good choices doesn’t ensure a team holding onto its best player anymore. The Cavs were 60 win teams. The Nuggets were FAR superior to the Knicks when Melo left. You have to be perfect.
I was focusing solely on Basketball, the other teams were just there for effect. I’m not saying it’s over forever, I’m saying that the NBA is a copycat league, and the clock is ticking faster than ever. If you truly don’t believe that the timetable to success has been shortened two or three years, then I don’t know if we could continue talking. Kentucky is a traditional basketball power – that’s what the “markets” equate to in College sports IMO. I’m just saying, it doesn’t feel good to know that if we miss on one pick, we’re probably screwed again.… Read more »
@Carter: Football has the most parity of any sport in the league, and it has a hard cap. There’s little point in complaining about a big market in football because almost every market does well regardless of size. When you only have eight home games a year, you’re going to fill the stadium up for all of them unless your fans just absolutely suck or your team has been horrendous for years (and even then certain fan bases still show up…see: Cleveland). Also, Miami is not a big market. In fact, according to 2010 census data, the city of Miami… Read more »
freak out much carter? LA Kings had never won before, Miami is a hot spot for young people with money, but not a big market, and they were playing a team from OKC that will be going back to the finals quite soon, and Kentucky is in a tiny town with average weather and no beaches, i don’t get your point. Nothing last night changed the fact that small market teams have to work harder than big market teams to attract talent. That has always been the case, last night didn’t do shit to the equation. If I recall, last… Read more »
Dano, I agree Lebron is definitely the best player on the planet, but Wade’s knees aren’t getting healthier and the thunder could have won the first 4 games with a little luck, certainly if the reffing discrepancy had gone the opposite way. Miami obviously has a decent shot of winning a couple more, but its not like its going to be on cruise control. Especially with the thunder getting one year better and left with that disappointment from these finals to fuel them. Hoopsdogg, He at least decided to put a ring on his baby mama finally and pointed the… Read more »
I tweeted as much last night, but this was not a good year if you want to feel good about competitiveness in sports for small markets. NFL: New York Giants NBA: Miami Heat NHL: LA Kings NCAA Basketball: Kentucky NCAA Football: Alabama I worry about the long term future of sports, especially basketball if this year serves (as everyone seems to expect it to) as a precursor for how things will be done now. We learned that superteams in basketball can win it all. I’m terrified Kyrie is going to leave when he can unless we do literally everything completely… Read more »
I’m sitting this morning listening to Steven A (yes, a glorified douche who for some reason or another gets a LOT of airtime on ESPN shows). Anyhow, he’s praising Lebron for not taking any shortcuts and he keeps emphasizing this point. He says Lebron didn’t take the easy way to a championship and he did all the right things. And I’m sitting there thinking what is he talking about. Didn’t Lebron take all the shortcuts on the way to a ring? What other shortcuts are there that this blowhard commentator be referring to that Lebron didn’t take? Outside of steroids… Read more »
Counter evidence to the claim that LBJ has matured. Video from last night of him rapping with a t-shirt of himself on. Very classy, humble and mature.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hqZ3u9L6hso#!
Frankly, I’m really glad it’s over. No more wondering/waiting. Let’s move on.
Watching LeBron play this series: (1) He’s basically unstoppable; (2) If he stays healthy and continues to play at this level, he can win as many NBA titles as he chooses.
I don’t want to hear how the finals were rigged. That’s a ridiculous notion. The more physical, aggressive team almost always gets the calls in the NBA, and that’s what happened here. Miami wanted it more. You can talk all you want about game 2, but OKC played themselves into a hole, and as people have mentioned, any time you’re depending on one call to tie a ball game, you’ve put yourself in a bad position. Let’s talk about the real reason OKC lost: Harden and Ibaka Disappeared, and OKC’s rebounding was awful. I’m convinced now that I’d much rather… Read more »
Ed – I’m sorry, but what sound supporting cast? Lets remember for a minute, Mario Chalmers and Shane Battier basically went OFF in consecutive games, which was completely unprecedented. I’m middle of the road about this whole championship – I don’t have to be happy about it, but I can accept it – but to pretend for a minute that this was because of anything other than Lebron playing OUT OF HIS EFFING MIND, Bosh and Wade doing JUUUUSSSTTTT enough, and a bunch of role players catching fire at the right time is just naive and poor understanding of basketball.… Read more »
I didn’t want UK to win the tournament because it meant the new era of NCAA basketball was going to be dominated by AAU superstud 1 and done players that were just using UK as a launchpad to the NBA lottery. I didn’t want the Heat to win for a million reasons but the most important reason was that in our simplistic reductive world of media analysis, a ring for LeBron meant that he made the RIGHT decision in July 2010. And he didn’t. First thing Rick Reilly tweeted last night was #smartmove in reference to the decision. Mostly it… Read more »
Watching Lebron after the game, I just thought “Wow, what an empty win.” He won a ring for himself and it seems that’s all he cared about. But after the celebration he must have had the thought that this would’ve meant so much more in Cleveland. If he would’ve won that ring here, it wouldn’t have been just him winning a title, it would’ve been the whole city and state winning. He would’ve brought a championship to a fanbase that wants and deserves one sooo bad. At least I hope he realizes that even though he shut up the critics… Read more »
I am surprisingly happy for Lebron. He matured a lot this year and deserved to win a championship after the way he played. However, I’m kind of getting annoyed by all the Magic Johnson type experts out there saying he’s one of the greats. He’s not even close to done with his career yet! Don’t start calling someone one of the alltime greats at least until they are near retirement, geeze! Also, I found myself not liking the rest of the heat besides Lebron (and Bosh) this year. Just in the playoffs even, the Heat weren’t even fun to watch… Read more »
Lol @ the Heat fans here.
It sucks that LeBron didn’t win a championship with the Cavs. Oh well, life goes on. I’m sure we all have more important things in our lives. I look forward to seeing what the future brings for both the Cavs and the NBA!
@Richard @James Wade @Erik — LeBron played phenominally and had some of the greatest playoff performances ever documented in terms of scoring, passing and all-around basketball I.Q. He got his teammates involved and took over himself when it was necessary to lock it down. That being said, there are TOO many bogus calls for the series not to be rigged. The refs are human so they are bound to miss a few calls but the discrepancies in some of the Celtics games as well as the Thunder are indisputible. In G2 of the Celtics series, LeBron takes 24 free throws… Read more »
@Erik: You are clearly forgetting the Heat’s previous ring…
The only thing that really gets me is that, if LeBron had played this hard against Boston two years ago, the Cavs wouldn’t have lost. Instead, he quit on the team and then used his weak teammates as an excuse to leave.
Other than that, I’m basically over LeBron. Looking forward to Thursday’s draft!
Some of the blame for the Cavs failing to build a contender has to fall on James shoulders. It seems painfully obvious that he had no interest in helping bring quality free agents to Cleveland. Wade knew exactly who he wanted to play with and went out and got them. It doesn’t seem that Lebron ever put that effort in on Cleveland’s behalf.
@ Randy, you’re clearly a loser in life. What’s this “we” shit? I didn’t see some douchebag loser named Randy on the roster. Go eat someone’s face off in Miami.
not a weak and immature argument. tim leglar (respected nba retired vet), bill simmons (probably more in the know with NBA circles than any other current sportswriter) are 2 people that have brought this up. not just “crybaby” cleveland fans. of course heat fans don’t think it was rigged. all i’m saying is with the 15+ years i’ve been watching basketball and reading about the sport, i can’t recall a finals series being officiating THIS one-sided. open your eyes people.
Heat fans have apparently been waiting for this just to come to the Cavs blog? Talk about petty. That aside, Dan gilbert threw money at everything when lebron was here, it wasn’t him not empowering his GM to make moves, it was that his GM made the wrong moves. It happens. What finally put Lebron over the hump, in my opinion, were his jump shooters on the wing hitting at an insane rate when in the past they deserted him when he needed them, and this was made possible by him finally realizing he should play like a power forward… Read more »
I was for OKC of course but lebron did play great and his teamates were huge help. If he would of played like he did this year in Cleveland he would have won in Cleveland. He grew up and stopped joking aroung and played serious. In Cleveland he was to worried about having fun and not winning. He used his teamates as an excuse for not winning then he picked new ones. The truth is he listened to people and played in the post and took it to the hoop like he should of always did. In Cleveland he played… Read more »
Dan blew it! His incompetence at establishing a championship caliber roster around the game’s best player forced Lebron’s hand. Look at how Arison empowered Riley to get ‘er done. First rate, all the way. Hey Dan, Lebron is no longer “self-proclaimed,” and the Cavs are just another craptastic franchise. Way to go, boss.
@Erik – I don’t think the finals were rigged. Having said that, it was one of the most poorly officiated series (both ways) I think I’ve ever seen in my entire life. A few nights ago I was arguing with myself about whether or not I’d ever be able to watch another Finals and take it seriously if the officiating stays this bad. They’re human, they do the best they can, but it would sure help if they didn’t miss obvious fouls and called the game with a little consistency. As an aside…if the refs are focusing on the defender… Read more »
Glad to see Lebron get a ring! As a Cavs fan, of course I was disappointed to see him go. But I think Dan Gilbert shoud take note – one great player can get you close, but a sound supporting cast will get you a trophy!! All five of Miami’s starters made very significant contributions throughout the series. And there were some that had written the Heat off after Bosh got hurt, but they perservered!! That is the signature of a Championship Team!
Well, I would have preferred for Lebron to never win a championship and for the Heat front office to break up this team in embarassment over their failed accomplishments. My stages of grief were swift and now that I’ve had a chance to sleep on it I’ve arrived at acceptance; I’m a bitter old man. Lebron played a fantastic series. He dominated this game from the high post and sprinkled in enough Iso / pick and roll / deferring to Wade to keep the defense honest. While he doesn’t have a strong array of post moves, his size, athletic ability,… Read more »
Come on Erik, you are better than that. Last night the Thunder only shot 7 less free throws than Miami, and Lebron and Wade play much more aggressively inside than Durant and Westbrook do, plus Perkins is stupid and fouls unnecessarily, and his 5 almost make up the differential. Also you’re complaining about Westbrook only getting to the line 3 times in game four? Did you watch the game, where the move he was doing all game was that 17 foot pull jumper? Look at his shot chart, the vast majority of his shots were no where near the basket.… Read more »
lol bet when lebron was in cleveland the games weren’t fixed right (lol). well tell your owner to get the desire to win a championship, to get more pieces to the puzzle. well we have him now and we got another championship. what the hell do yall have. get over it cry babies (cleveland mistake by the lake)
@Erik, the NBA Finals are not rigged. Get a better argument than that. The game goes to the team that scores the most points. How does the NBA rig which shots go into the basket? Your argument is weak and immature.
Congratulations Heat!!! Very happy for LeBron being a part of the Championship team and showing the world that he’s the #1 NBA player. Sorry Dan, your hate and stupidity produced the Championship in Miami.
over/under 2 years before something comes out about the finals being rigged? just too many no-calls on miami, charges called on thunder, touch fouls on thunder, and not to mention westbrook only getting to the line 3 times in game four. something was going on…. fisher shouldn’t have been called for a flagrant, that much is clear. i fear this could put a black mark on the nba for years to come. fans generally don’t like when series are rigged..
Apparently there are shortcuts Dan lol. This finals actually healed me a lot…Lebron has grown and the last two years did humble him to a degree. I was happy to see him win, and Ohio was certainly well represented in the Finals thanks to Norris Cole. That finals brought much needed closure, we should feel VERY fortunate to have the Kyrie era upon us and a team we can really pull for over the next decade. Go Cavs!