Is LeBron James really going to leave Cleveland? – WFNY Podcast
June 28, 2017Video killed the journalist star: While We’re Waiting
June 29, 2017The Cleveland Cavaliers are still without a president or general manager. After David Griffin and Cavs owner Dan Gilbert agreed to part ways for reasons that are not fully known, many expected Gilbert to already had someone else in place who would take over in the coming days. Over a week later, and both front office spots are still vacant. While you would think that Gilbert would be busy trying to fill the openings prior to free agency beginning at midnight Friday night, he seemed to have other ideas.
Instead of locking down president candidate Chauncey Billups, with the ball supposedly in Gilbert’s court following a counter offer from Billups, on Wednesday, he was seen with the Chicago Cubs at the White House, during their 2016 World Series title celebration. Although he was purported to be meeting with the President for other reasons, taking pictures and meeting with the team who broke the hearts of many Clevelanders after beating the Indians in seven games last November isn’t a good look whatsoever, especially when his basketball team’s front office is in shambles.
Herre’s a picture of Gilbert with the Cubs from CLTV’s Josh Frydman:
Dan Gilbert crashed the Cubs Trump White House visit. pic.twitter.com/iybft8goF3
— Josh Frydman (@Josh_Frydman) June 28, 2017
Celebrating with the Cubs is bad enough, but what makes it worse is the fact that the Cavs are still without a general manager and president. With the new league year beginning July 1, the wine and gold are in search the two highest positions in their front office with free agency set to begin in less than 48 hours. Gilbert should be finding new faces for the Cavs front office, but instead he’s busy hanging out with the team who just beat the Indians on baseball’s biggest stage.
Windhorst on The Jump talking about DG at the White House w/Cubs: "Its a terrible look. NBA players are going crazy about this." Fun!
— Andrew Schnitkey (@RockWFNY) June 28, 2017
With LeBron James entering the final year of his contract, there’s a chance that he could dart and all but put the Cavs back in rebuilding mode. Because of that, along with Golden State’s dominance and needing to improve to compete with the Warriors, this is a very crucial offseason for the wine and gold. To say that it’s embarrassing that the Cavs don’t have a president or general this close to free agency would be an understatement. But it’s OK, at least our owner is at the White House with the Cubs, right? It really doesn’t make sense.
Gilbert meeting with President Donald Trump could have been hush hush and no one would have known, but instead he somewhat embarrassed not only himself, but the city of Cleveland and the Cavaliers as well. For those curious, Gilbert didn’t invite himself into the room with the Cubs, Trump asked where he was and told him to join in. The owner could have easily rejected the President in order to make Clevelanders happy—or at the very least, stay off of television and met with him after the fact—but instead of chose to do the polar opposite.
Here’s how Trump asked him, courtesy of Deadspin:
Where’s Dan? Where’s Dan Gilbert? He was right outside, grab him. Where’s Dan? Dan Gilbert just came in. He’s the basketball—he’s looking for a good basketball player. Anyone play basketball? Let’s go over to—where’s Dan Gilbert? Come here, Dan. Come here, Dan. You want eh, uh, come over here. You want a good baseball player to play basketball? So Dan owns the Cavaliers, and I would say, I guess you can’t say great season, right? Good season. Last year was a great season, right? Anyway.
So many things could have been different about Gilbert’s trip to the White House if he would have been smarter about it, but he instead chose to put himself in the spotlight. He took to Twitter Wednesday night, but it was already too little, too late.
I would've strongly preferred celebrating an @indians victory at the @WhiteHouse today.Being drawn into @cubs visit was quite interesting…
— Dan Gilbert (@cavsdan) June 28, 2017
In one of the most crucial offseasons in Cavs history, the owner is busy celebrating with the team who just beat the Indians rather than filling the president and general manager vacancies prior to free agency. Says a lot, doesn’t it? Sometimes you don’t even have to explain the characteristics of a human being at times, this seems like one of those instances.
Gilbert crashed the Cubs’ celebration Wednesday afternoon, but in 2018 people may look back and realize that it was one of the reasons why he was starting to crash the Cavs franchise into the ground as well.
9 Comments
Man – hard to blame a guy for not turning down the president to his face. I can’t stand the guy (Trump) but if he asked me to join the Steelers in the Rose Garden for their meeting, I’d probably just say yes. And, if I had some sort of favor that I needed from the guy I KNOW I’d say yes.
Right?
That’s the sense that I got, too. Might have just been happenstance that he was just at the right (wrong?) place at the right time, especially based on the transcribe of Trump’s muttering.
So, I should put my torchfork away?
Hidden camera footage documenting Gilbert later that evening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaxB4ChFTnQ
I think this is way overreacting. Dan and the Cavs organization can multitask.
Away? Naw. You can probably put it down for a spell though.
I don’t really think this was necessary to address. He clearly looked uncomfortable. I’m not going to argue about the lack of a GM though.