The Cleveland Cavaliers are at a crossroads.
Now blessed with having secured the top pick in the NBA draft three of the last four seasons, the Cavs’ have nonetheless found themselves unable to entice even the most basic of competent coaches to man their young, talented rosters largely based on what’s widely perceived in league circles as owner’s Dan Gilbert’s over-meddling nature.
The ying and the yang that has become the franchise’s reality again exhibited itself this week when the team walked away with the No. 1 overall pick in the loaded upcoming June draft just hours after the likes of Steve Kerr, John Calipari and Kevin Ollie reportedly were all declining to so much as even take formal interviews with the team.
Certainly, Gilbert’s volatile reputation precedes him, as he is the same man who once lambasted native son LeBron James when he dared to leave the banks of Lake Erie for the breezy shores of South Beach in 2010, admonishing King James “some people think they should go to heaven but not have to die to get there. Sorry, but that’s simply not how it works.”
Gilbert went on to add “this shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown ‘chosen one’ sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And ‘who’ we would want them to grow-up to become. “The self-declared former ‘King’ will be taking the ‘curse’ with him down south. And until he does ‘right’ by Cleveland and Ohio, James will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma,”
But what of Dan Gilbert’s ”karma” and reputation as one of the most hard to work for bosses in all the league? What of his history of being the brains behind some of the most mind-boggling front office decisions across all the league over the last several seasons?
Ask yourself who besides Gilbert would have thought it a good idea to rehire Mike Brown just months after firing him, then idly look on as the creatively challenged coach came to have some of the same issues with current young star Kyrie Irving that he had with mega-star James back in the day?
But hey, it’s Dan Gilbert’s team and clearly he’s gone to run it as he damn well pleases. Even if it’s into the realm of utter incompetency.
