Dan Gilbert admits claim of winning NBA title before LeBron James was not wise – NBA News
The Cleveland Cavaliers billionaire owner Dan Gilbert did not handle the whole LeBron James free agency very well. To start off, his front office waited for James to leave the Cavaliers in free agency and not get anything in return for a player of his stature. And on top of that, Gilbert said that the Cavaliers would win an NBA championship before James in a moment of frustration after he left. It was a long shot for the Cavaliers to win an NBA championship at all, considering what was left in the roster after James left, and the whole issue came to an end when James won his first NBA title last season with the Miami Heat, much before the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Gilbert recently talked to the Associated Press about his claim and how it didn’t turn out to be true, and said that it was not one of the wisest things to do at that time.
“Looking back now, that probably was not the most brilliant thing I’ve ever done in my life. If you’re going to predict something that doesn’t happen and you’re going to do it publicly, you’d for sure take it back. When that happened when they won, it was the end of the end of the end of that whole thing,” said Gilbert
Gilbert is a lucky owner because a few years down the line from having lost an MVP player, he again has another player who has all the characteristics to make it big in the league and become the new face of the Cavaliers franchise. Kyrie Irving was drafted by Cleveland in the 2011 NBA Draft, and had an amazing rookie season in which he was named the rookie of the year. He was invited to scrimmage with the U.S Olympic Team in Las Vegas before the Olympics as part of the Select squad, and turned a few heads over there as well with players like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant talking highly of him.
In Irving, Gilbert knows that he has another chance of making another championship team if he puts the right pieces together.
“The big lesson was if a player is not willing to extend, no matter what kind of season you had, you can not risk going into a summer and having them leave in unrestricted free agency and get nothing back for it,” added Gilbert.
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