NBA

Fed-Up Cleveland Cavaliers Fan Fires Back At Owner Dan Gilbert Via Basketball-Reference.com

Here’s the sad fact of the matter: the LeBron-James-less Cleveland Cavaliers are not a good team. Despite beating the Knicks on Saturday, they’re 8-19, and since they’re hosting the 19-9 Jazz tonight, it’s going to take an upset to prevent 8-20. Understandably, fans aren’t happy about what they’re seeing…and one found a creative way to take out their frustration on owner Dan Gilbert.

The method was to use basketball-reference.com, probably the best site out there for past and present NBA stats. It so happens that basketball-reference has a feature where a person can “sponsor” a page – for a set fee, someone can post their name and a message at the top of any page they wish, and it stays up there for a year. Here’s what the sponsored message on the Cavaliers’ page currently looks like:

You have clicked on the Basketball-Reference.com page featuring the flotsam of the worst owner in professional sports, the Napoleonic carnival barker dwarf, Dan Gilbert. Compared to Dan Gilbert, Ted Stepien was a freakin’ genius.

(Here’s a little more explaining the Stepien reference.) Now, as a few pointed out in comments here, Gilbert probably isn’t the worst owner in sports, as Clippers owner Donald Sterling has a special spot atop that list. But, as Ball Don’t Lie’s Kelly Dwyer points out, Gilbert’s not blameless:

Gilbert is the owner who tried to placate LeBron James’ every whim, turning the Cavalier organization into a playground for his pals and ensuring the type of tactlessness that came back to bite Gilbert’s ass in The Decision [ed. note: and speaking of tactlessness...yeah].

[...]

Did Gilbert make the smart basketball move (as I kind of expected, when I pegged the Cavaliers for 12 wins last July) and start over? Did he trade away older assets to begin a smart, youth-based rebuilding movement? Hell to the naw.

He added Ramon Sessions, made Byron Scott coach this mess, and hoped for the best.

Maybe it was a bit much to call Gilbert the worst owner (and even a bit much to unfavorably compare him to Stepien), but his stewardship of the franchise doesn’t exactly look sparkling right no, either. And after the way this summer went – and how the season has gone, to this point – it’s hard to blame Cavs fans for being angry.

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