After consulting with my spelling experts prior to typing this, it has been decided that it is, indeed, possible to spell "Dan Gilbert" without the word "bitter". However, why would you want to?
Over the last 72 hours, I thought the biggest mistake the NBA has made all year was putting the kibosh on a three-team deal that would have sent New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul to the Lakers. The trade was surprisingly fair on all sides and the fact that commissioner David Stern risked further bad press by nixing it solely because a few sore losers didn't want to see the rich get richer is a clear sign that maybe someone else should be steering the ship. As big a goof as throwing ice water on this trade was for Stern, the biggest problem he has now and will continue to have is letting Dan Gilbert speak, whether in letter form or otherwise.
A little over a year after crying foul, in a letter, of course, over his franchise workhorse LeBron James publicly walking away from Gilbert's Cavs to join the Heat, Gilbert was at it again this week with his pen and paper. Gilbert called the NBA allowing Paul to join the Lakers "a travesty". Then, he went on to assume that the Paul trade would lead to a later trade for Magic center Dwight Howard and the two would join forces with Kobe Bryant to form the NBA's latest "superteam". Now, why would a man who saw the best player his franchise ever had skip town to join his two All-Star buddies in South Beach object to the idea of a "superteam"? Gilbert is the poster child for the divide between small-market owners and their big city comrades and his incompetence is more a sign of a dolt not getting with the times than a worried owner fearing for the future of the sport. Big stars want to play in big cities. That is a proven fact. 15 years ago, Shaquille O'Neal left a cushy job as the best center in the world in Orlando to be the biggest superstar in basketball in Hollywood. Last year, Carmelo Anthony saw his buddy LeBron lamp it up in Miami and wanted to do the same thing in NYC, so he bullied his way out of Denver. It takes a certian brand of player to want to just play basketball, regardless of the locale. Gilbert's comments, both last year and this week, are the reason Cleveland will never land a big free agent, but Gilbert will tell you that it's because big-market teams are clouding pending free agents' thoughts with the caviar wishes and champagne dreams that small-market teams can't provide, thus making it tough for them to compete.
Good ownership and a good fan base will get stars to stay. You don't see Kevin Durant wanting a trade to Chicago, do you? Rudy Gay had no problem staying in Memphis, right? Big city teams may have the upper hand in luring big names, but they aren't holding down the little guy. Gilbert had 6 years to give LeBron a reason to stay home and he failed. Then, rather than wish the man luck on his future endeavors, he kicked and screamed like a child and made the franchise look like a sore loser with a scathing letter that now just looks laughable. This latest letter is equally dumbfounding. For one, by forcing Paul to stay by stopping any deal that would send him elsewhere, you're forcing the Hornets to get nothing in return for a guy who, unlike LeBron, was gracious enough to give his team a head's up about his departure so they could prepare. You can't pretend to care about the Hornets' interests and then do whatever you can to screw them out of their best chance to get something of worth for their departing franchise player. The Hornets would have gotten back four starters for a guy who was leaving after the season. If anything, the post-Paul Hornets looked more promising than this current version. That's more than you can say about Gilbert's Cavs post-LeBron and even the post-Melo Nuggets.
The Lakers acquiring Paul may be another example of stars aligning in big markets and I can understand how that's frustrating for a guy like Gilbert who is still hurting from losing LeBron, but you weren't going to stop CP3 from ending up in a big market. If you keep him in New Orleans, he's just going to sign with New York next season anyway. You're only delaying the inevitable. On top of that, it was a fair trade. Where was Gilbert's bitching and moaning over L.A. pilfering Pau Gasol from Memphis for a couple bags of rice and Pau's twin brother a few years ago? I didn't see Gilbert complaining when he was able to steal Antawn Jamison from Washington for a player they ended up getting back a month later. You can't cry foul when it suits you and, if someone is going to speak up for the little guy, it should be someone with some credibility and not someone who has spent the last 16 months making an ass of himself in public letters. The Chris Paul trade to the Lakers is going to go through, probably by the end of the weekend, and the Magic will probably trade Dwight Howard to the Nets or Lakers before the season tips off on Christmas. This is the new NBA. Stars want to play with stars and give themselves the best chance to win. That's a logic that was foreign to Gilbert when he had LeBron and is seemingly more lost on him now that King James is gone.
There are reasons for public outcries. This wasn't one of them. There's a time and a place to criticize your boss. During a week where Stern took shots left and right for caving to owners and killing the Paul trade and after months of bad PR from an NBA lockout was not the time to start writing your "Dear John..." notes. The NBA's best chance to save face is allow the trade that Hornets GM Dell Demps and his fellow GMs have worked so hard this week to put together to go through and then, much like he should have done last summer, put a muzzle on Gilbert. It was hard enough for Stern to have to watch his well-known adversary Mark Cuban hoist the trophy this past June, it will be even tougher if he has to spend this shortened NBA season wiping the tears of a man who is to franchise-building incompetence what Donald Sterling is to racism.
If last summer should have taught you anything, Mr. Gilbert, it's that you can't stop the inevitable. You want to stick it the Lakers and their big city brethren? Put the pen and paper down and compete instead of being a loudmouth weasel. This is the new NBA. Get with the times or get the hell over it.
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