Gilbert Gives Cavs Fans the Gift of Hope

Gilbert Gives Cavs Fans the Gift of Hope

I was in the Cleveland Cavaliers locker room following the December 2 game in which the Miami Heat humiliated the Cavs while LeBron James – celebrating his return to Quicken Loans Arena following his obscene “Decision” several months earlier – taunted the Cavalier players and grinned for the national television cameras.

Now, of course it’s true that the sports world can be viewed as the toy department of life, but it’s equally true that it frequently contains the elements of profound drama, tragedy, comedy or farce. And it also can – from time to time – pack the kind of visceral wallop it did on that surreal December night.

In my nearly two decades of covering sports in Cleveland, I had never experienced anything remotely like the atmosphere in that locker room that night. To say that the players were devastated doesn’t come close to capturing the mood. Metaphorically, it was more like the term used for those shattered soldiers who had come back not quite whole emotionally from WWII. They were shell-shocked.

The normally affable Anderson Varejao couldn’t even bring himself to look in the eyes of the gathered media. Players’ glances were averted from each other; a few kept their backs turned while they dressed – then quickly exited; and those who spoke did so in choked, apologetic tones. Driving home that night, the depth of gloom in that locker room commingled with the dark disappointment and sadness that had filled the arena during the game haunted me like a Bergman movie.

It certainly didn’t require superior powers of observation to realize that it could take a while for the Cavaliers to recover from such a traumatic experience. And it did, as the team unknowingly had begun the process of losing 36 of 37 games and becoming the laughingstock of the NBA after having recorded the league’s best record the previous two seasons.

During this winter of unprecedented losing and relentless discontent, about the only encouraging items came in the form of tweets from Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, promising that he would do everything in his power to turn the team’s fortunes around. Normally, these types of vows would be perceived as hollow by the oft-deceived Cleveland sports fan. But Gilbert, a self-made billionaire, had certainly provided evidence that he deserved being given the benefit of the doubt.

Along with having shown since he bought the Cavs in 2005 that he would spend all the money he could to bring a winning team to Cleveland, he also has imported a chunk of his Quicken Loans Mortgage company to the city, bringing much-needed jobs to the area. In addition, Gilbert successfully orchestrated the passage of a casino referendum in 2009, something many thought was impossible to do in Ohio. As a result, in the heart of downtown a multi-faceted gambling and entertainment development is being built which could end up involving close to a billion dollar investment on his group’s part and that should create a few thousand jobs and generate tens of millions in revenue for the city.

But it’s not Gilbert’s financial efforts that have won him the devotion of the vast majority of Cavaliers fans. It’s what he did when the duplicitous James – six weeks after flat-out quitting on the court in Game 5 against the Boston Celtics – humiliated the city by announcing to the nation that he was “taking his talents to South Beach.” On this bleakest of nights in franchise history, Gilbert delivered a scathing denunciation of James that served as a life raft being thrown to tens of thousands of drowning fans.

While the national media trashed him for his incendiary letter, no Cavs fan who was going under that empty July Thursday around midnight will ever forget how Gilbert had the courage to say what was exactly on his and most fans’ minds. And how he brazenly shared – in a visceral, starkly human manner – his white-hot anger, righteous indignation and soul-deep aching with them.

So, right after LeBron stabbed Cleveland in the back, Gilbert had the guts to grab the knife and stab the smug ingrate right back. I can’t even count how many hardcore Cavs fans have confided in me this season that Gilbert’s letter was the only spark of light on that terrible night and how they are eternally grateful to him for it.

In February of this year Gilbert made a move that showed he was worthy of the fans’ trust when, at the trade deadline, he okayed a deal in which the Cavs took on the huge contract of guard Baron Davis (about $30 million over the next two years) in order to receive a prime lottery draft pick from the Los Angeles Clippers. At a time when almost all other franchises were cutting costs by desperately trying to unload expensive long-term contracts, Gilbert’s action signaled to Cavs fans that he would be willing to take on major financial burdens – something no other owner in the league was willing to do – now and in the future if this were the only way for the team to acquire young talent. He had put his money where his mouth was by initiating this bold plan and, practically overnight, the fans gained a glimmer of hope that a light just may exist at the tunnel’s end.

When LeBron James led his Miami Heat back into town a few weeks ago for their second and final appearance here this season, the memory of that first debacle certainly had not disappeared. But this time, it was different. As the loathsome James tried to enter the arena with his fabled entourage early in the afternoon, he was rebuffed and told he could stay but his friends had to go. (“Not in our garage,” Gilbert later tweeted.) During the player introductions, the still-miffed Chosen One was a no-show, later claiming to have been in the bathroom at the time. The Cavs beat the Heat that night and bounced the no longer grinning James around a few times. After the game, exhaled smiles eased around the Cleveland locker room.

A small consolation at the conclusion of a horrid season? Certainly. But a little good juju can go a long way in this town. At the end of the final game of the season – Fan Appreciation Night in which the Cavs bestow over a million dollars worth of gifts to those in attendance – the team closed out a victory and the crowd stood and roared. A video message from Gilbert appeared on the scoreboard promising, “We will not stop until we deliver a championship.”

Based on the fans deafening reaction to Gilbert’s words, there was every reason to believe that hope – life’s most precious commodity – was very much alive and kicking in the hearts of the Cavalier faithful.

 

Larry Durstin is an independent journalist who has covered politics and sports for a variety of publications and websites over the past 20 years. He was the founding editor of the Cleveland Tab and an associate editor at the Cleveland Free Times. Durstin has won 12 Ohio Excellence in Journalism awards, including six first places in six different writing categories. LarryDurstinATyahoo.com

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