Friday, June 29th, 2012 at 12:35 pm  |  89 responses

LeBron James Was Hurt By Letter from Cavs Owner When He Left Cleveland


The city of Cleveland lost its collective mind when LeBron James infamously left in the summer of 2010. James admitted to Oprah Winfrey (during an interview that will air this Sunday) that the batsh*t crazy letter that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert fired off shortly after “The Decision” hurt his feelings. Per Fox Sports: “Winfrey interviewed James and fellow Heat stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh shortly after they wrapped up the title for the show ‘Oprah’s Next Chapter.’ Part one will air 8 p.m. EDT Sunday on the Oprah Winfrey Network with part two at 8 p.m. EDT July 8. The network made available Thursday a clip with James’ response when Winfrey asked him about Gilbert’s letter. ‘It was hurtful because I know how much I put into that organization, and every night I’m out on the floor I tried to give it my all and I tried to bring a championship to that city every single night,’ said James, who didn’t win a title with the Cavaliers from 2003-10, losing 4-0 to San Antonio in 2007 in their only Finals appearance. ‘But, at the same time, I understood that everyone has their opinion. Everybody has a right to say what they want to say and there’s nothing I can do about that.’ [...] Gilbert’s letter was written after James said in July 2010 on the ESPN-aired “The Decision” that he would be leaving Cleveland for Miami. NBA commissioner David Stern fined him $100,000 for writing it. In the letter, Gilbert wrote, ‘I personally guarantee that the Cleveland Cavaliers will win an NBA championship before the self-titled former ‘King’ wins one. You can take it to the bank.’ That, obviously, did not happen.”

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  • http://www.slamonline.com Nathan

    *Boys & Girls Club. My bad..

  • http://slamonline.co.nz Ugh

    “..every night I’m out on the floor I tried to give it my all.” Look, LeBron, either talk in the present tense or the past, not both in the one phrase.

  • greg

    i wonder what durant woulda done in the same position. i mean he signed his extention with okc when they already had their core well intact. by lebrons 4th year he could see they were gonna just keep getting scrubs for him to inflate till playoffs. flip the situation would durant be hated for leaving cleveland?

  • John P

    The bum still doesn’t get it, of course you gave it your all, it’s your job and u get paid to give it your all. Dan Gilberys checks never bounced so why wouldnt you give it all you had ? Dan Gilbert had every right to say what he said because LeBum stiffed the City and it was refreshing to see a Cleveland owner with some damn passion for a change !

  • John P

    The bum still doesn’t get it, of course you gave it your all, it’s your job and u get paid to give it your all. Dan Gilberys checks never bounced so why wouldnt you give it all you had ? Dan Gilbert had every right to say what he said because LeBum stiffed the City and it was refreshing to see a Cleveland owner with some damn passion for a change !

  • lol

    I never understood how LeBron left Cleveland when there was nothing to leave in the first place.

  • gusisit

    memphis dont need BB, that have arthur and speights

  • gusisit

    ^ woops, wrong thread

  • http://blackamericaweb.com charliewinning

    If you actually make the argument that Lebron had enough support on his team to succeed in Cleveland, your basketball opinion cannot be respected. As a Miami hater I can at least acknowledge his greatness as a player. I won’t even go so far as to call him a jerk because the fact still remains that he is a decent guy off the court. He stays out of legal trouble and does community work, which is way more than his haters do. I guess you’ll think he’s a good guy when he gets accused of r#pe, or drunk driving, or having a gambling problem. Get a life, people.

  • Rev

    The fact that Lebron had the star power to pitch a one hour show and every network in the TV world put a bid on it just shows how much of a star he is. Cleveland’s problem is….nobody wants to come to Cleveland! Bron tried to recruit other stars but they all said NO! I’m sure if Wade and Bosh came to Cleveland this whole thing would have been the total opposite. No one owns another human being and Lebron played out his contract till the end. Owners don’t give a heads up to players when they are going to be released. Players don’t owe owners anything after contracts have expired. Gilbert was mad because Lebron leaving was a bad business deal that he had no control over. Lebron doesn’t have a criminal record, he’s a good father, he’s a model citizen. It seems that the public gravitates toward “hopeless” characters but hate “clean cut ” people. Does Lebron say dumb stuff…..sure! Does he act like a jerk sometimes……sure! But so did Michael Jordan but everyone loves him. Why? He’s a champion! Last time I checked so was Lebron.

  • JUSTIN

    Even though LEbron expressed himself on oprah he didn’t or hasn’t owed the world a damn thing i am a heat and cavs fan but the whole reason for him leaving was the fault of dan gilbert first gilbert was the reason why both lebron and probably the greatest gm the cars will ever have in danny ferry left too. During that summer of the free agency lebron james did an interview with larry king and in the interview larry king noted that the cars are the only team that can pay you the most money in close to somewhere like 200 million dollars in contract money which for an nba star is outrageous!!! Lebron said I’m fortunate to say if something happened and i couldn’t play basketball anymore i am set for life. so money isn’t a factor and dan gilbert didn’t care he said lets just pay him lebron cares about winning not money and he didn’t get anyone here to cleveland to play with lebron not even an attempt to talk to anyone so thats a slap in the face to lebron and he was like I’m going to take my talents where I’m going to be appreciated which was miami

  • http://www.slamonline.com Redd

    Check the box score again, his teammates did alright he just sucked & didn’t show up. And he is a jerk, didn’t know that society’s standards are so low that not getting arrested means that you’re not a jerk.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7C0vd-L5lg Munky

    Redd, you know him personally? You’ve spent time in his presence? Do you do more community work than him? You know how he treats his family and friends? You are judging a person’s character that you’ve never even met before. Watching tv and surfing the net doesn’t mean you know him. Unless you have some first hand knowledge of how he’s a jerk, I think it’s safe to say that people like you in society are the bigger problem. The web makes people like you think they know more about a guy personally than you do…I don’t care about a box score. Real basketball fans watched the series. You can’t be taken seriously when you allow an irrational dislike of a player to sway your opinion on the game. The Cavs were a bum squad that had no business in the Finals that year, much less having a chance to beat the Spurs. You have to be pretty stupid to attempt to argue that they had a shot. Whomever you favorite player is right now, I guarantee he’s not talented enough to pull of a similar feat as Lebron did with those bums that year.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Redd

    Quit it, hold every person to the highest standard, don’t ignore the actions of celebrity. And the community work is required of athletes. I’m not a celebrity but I’ve done extensive work with urban projects & save darfur. All you’ve done is act holy.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Redd

    Crap my comments wont post

  • Dan

    ‘It was hurtful because I know how much I put into that organization, and every night I’m out on the floor I tried to give it my all and I tried to bring a championship to that city every single night,’

    Except when you quit, eh, Lebron? How is that mysterious elbow injury that caused you to have to shoot left handed? How about saying how spoiled Cleveland fans were when you failed them in the playoffs again? You were hurt by his letter? In my opinion… not enough!

    Own up to the fact that it was a classless act against Cleveland in leaving the way you did, admit that you stopped playing for Cleveland long before ‘the decision’ and maybe Cleveland fans will stop hating you more than even Art Modell. I doubt it though. You are the most self absorbed person in the public eye. You were hurt? You were hurt?!? You need to level that eyesore on Idlebrook Drive in Bath, OH and take your unwelcome self to southbeach permanently.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7C0vd-L5lg Munky

    Offseason community work is not required of players past rookie year. They are on vacation, and are pretty much treated as such by the league. Players are not required to create foundations and sponsor non-league sanctioned events. I highly doubt you’d spend as much time on charitable work as Lebron, even if you had his resources. You still have yet to name what this ‘celebrity’ has done that gives a stranger like yourself any more insight about his character than the rest of us. His celebrity affects you more than it affects me, obviously. It makes you feel that a law abiding citizen needs to live up to how you think his personality should be. You think that he should be held to a higher standard than every other human being. He hasn’t hurt anyone that anyone knows of, yet that isn’t enough for people like you. Jordan and other stars were much more self-absorbed. Just admit you are a hater. There is no merit to your opinion.

  • Hahahah

    Lebron is not a true champion. A true champion does not go to a team that already has a superstar player, a true champion builds around him.

  • Jay

    LeBron haters are mad because he isn’t on their favorite team. Lets see how he stacks up to other stars:

    Kobe Bryant gets accused of r@pe, publicly tries to get Bynum traded, publicly tells Laker ownership he wants to be traded, can’t get along with a Hall of Famer while winning rings, and calls a dude a f@g (which was funny).

    Dwight Howard gets his coach and GM fired and demands a trade all year.

    Carmelo Anthony forces a trade to New York.

    Chris Paul forces a trade out of New Orleans.

    LeBron fulfilled his contract with the Cavs and exercised his rights as a free agent. Other than a few speeding tickets, he has a clean record. Was the decision the best thing? Nope, it wasn’t, but he was a 25 year old that made a bone head decision. Let it go people, he’s in Miami and you can boo him just like everyone booed Jordan when he was killing the league to the tune of six championships.

  • hikingagain

    too bad, boo hoo

    It doesn’t compare to his ESPN

    audios to Cleveland debacle.

  • http://timewarner hikingagain

    No, it wasn’t Gilbert. This was all prearranged

    Poor baby….I guess the ESPN audios debacle
    does not count, huh LBJ???

  • Deez Nuts

    Then why did he shoot only 14 times in a critical loss vs Boston in game 5 of the 2010 playoffs? Oh yeah, that elbow injury that went away pretty damn quick and was forgotten about.

    Once they went up 2-1 in that series he quit, either thinking about the Delonte rumors or was thinking its gonna be harder to go to South Beach if we win the whole thing.

  • Jay

    Kobe quit on the Lakers when they played the Suns and demanded a trade, and yet LeBron gets more crap than him? LOL humans are such interesting creatures….

  • Dan

    He held the franchise hostage by not committing to them when they’re trying to bring free agents in. No one will sign when your star won’t say whether or not he’ll sign an extension. The “decision” should have been made a year earlier. If we knew he was going to leave, they could have traded him and got something in return. The way things played out was the worst scenario for the Cavs and their fans. And he didn’t give it his all against Boston.

  • Foggy

    To those of you who criticize Cavs fans for being bitter about Lebron,
    you simply don’t understand the heartache over losing one of your own!
    However, I don’t believe all the Cavs fans understood all the facts at
    the time. I blamed Lebron for the DECESION, but he admitted that was
    probably a mistake and I’m over it. It’s like an old girlfriend, you
    can’t be bitter the rest of your life. It’s time to move on. The facts:
    The Cavs needed a better Playoff coach, and some better players around
    Lebron, even though we loved them all. Also having players that would
    stay away from his mother probably wouldn’t have hurt either! I wasn’t
    sure who i was going to root for but OKC didn’t come to play and wanted
    to blame everyone but themselves. Lebron came to play. Even the Cavs
    fans who are still bitter have to admit that Lebrons performance at
    Boston was nothing short of amazing. To summarize: 1. I still believe
    Lebron still considers himself a Buckeye at heart. 2. Lebron promised
    Cleveland a championship ring. 3. I still believe he will keep his
    promise. Call me a dreamer. Whatever. To the people who make
    Cleveland jokes (go F*** yourselves)! To the Cleveland fans who are
    still bitter, wake up and please forgive me.

  • A real Cavs fan

    Lebron is a great player . I’m from Cleveland and until like 3 or 4 years into his career , the cleveland fans weren’t really supporting the Cavs . They were more interested in a terrible Browns team. So to call Heat fans bandwagon fans when they didn’t support the Cavs until they started winning is Hypocritical. Dan Gilbert only brought the Cavs because Lebron was on the team of course he’s going to be upset but because now his team loses its value but hey he bounced back by building a Casino here . The Cavaliers are not a good organization they have a history of losing talented players. Most of the Cleveland fans and National Sports Commentors were talking about Lebron leaving the city since he was drafted . So I don’t understand why people are surprised or upset when they knew it was coming . They did not put the proper talent around him to win . Cleveland is not his hometown. He is from Akron which are two different places entirely if your from those areas you know that. People try to make it seem like he betrayed the City but what about all the other players on those Cavs teams that didn’t play well. Z also went to Miami and no one got up in arms about it when he had never really did anything to earn his paycheck. “The Decision” has people upset really . When players like Dwight Howard , Kobe Bryant , and Carmelo Anthony throw there teams under the bus and disrupt the team during the season. Lebron James never complained about anything played injuried and still gave his best . Outta all the sports athletes to hate this is the guy the public choses . OH well he only shot 14 times in Game 5 , but he still has a protective sleeve on his elbow now 2 years later. Cleveland Fans need to relax . I’m almost embarrassed to say I’m from Cleveland because of this . If the decision was bad what about the Cleveland fans reaction to it,I mean that was 10x as shameful. The killing part is without the decision they would have done the same thing. There is no excuse for Cleveland fans behavior and do they support the Cavs now No of course not are they supporting the Indians no but they’ll support the terrible browns no matter what Cleveland Fans are bandwagon fans they only support the Teams when there winning unless its the Browns . Oh and if Lebron isn’t an Elite Player why get upset if he left?

  • Lord of NO RINGS!! LBJ

    Lebron James is such a faker. The NBA is trying to make lebron look like a good guy and create a good image for him. The finals were fixed and they wanted lebron to get a ring. Chris bosh is a woman. Hes so dumb he cant remember what day it was he won the finals. Lebron is a lier. The Celtics Cavs game lebron quit. Dont give me that crap that you tried to win a championship every night, as all clevelanders can attest to that. And that garbage that my elbow hurt, shooting lefty freethrows, is made up. If he won a ring in cleveland he would never be able to leave and go play with his buddies d-wade and bosh thats why he lost on purpose. He gets away with so much crap like fouls and 4- step travels and hacks and all that. The nba needs to clean that up.

  • Absolutely

    Some of you are insane with hatred. Particularly (Dan). You think LeBron should have told Wacko Gilbert and the rest of the Crazies that he planned on leaving? Why would you do such a foolish thing? 1. To get traded to an evan worse team than the Cavs. 2. To be accused of much more foolery or 3. Just because… What you fail to realize is that this is a business. Gilbert was running a business and LeBron was trying to win a champion. As long as LeBron was playing for the Calvs, Gilbert was satisfied. Gilbert wasn’t interested in trying to win a Championship. He just wanted a team with a STAR on it.

  • captainhk216

    I hope this clarify how Cleveland felt about the ” decision” Nobody cares he left, its how he did it. No, he didn’t have let Cleveland know he was leaving. Its he’s timing. He had waited till all the other top free-agents signed else where 2 do it. Hell, Im from cleveland & i would have choose Miami over Cleveland too. Especially if Im a 100 + millionaire. But by him doing it like he did set us back for years, when we could have used his money on someone else. If it was your home town team or just a team you like, you will feel the same way. So, that’s why Cleveland blow up like we did. Oh and lets not get how he folded in game 6. Or the fact when the cavs tried 2 get the sidekick he needed here, when that star called him personally to see if he should come. Lbs never gave a answer that he would be there. For years he did this, so who would sign not knowing he would stay. The cavs made his life very comfortable. Even built the practice facilities closer to his home town & the loved him since he was a child. We just feel he could of handle the whole thing better. Then the whole city would still love him.

  • Cory Hughey

    “Owner A” dropped out of college and inherited everything he has his father who founded Carnival Cruise Lines.

    “Owner B” is a self-made billionaire who went to a state school and founded Rock Financial in Grad school. He also owns a casino, Fat Head, Quicken Loans and multiple other businesses.

    Owner A is Mickey Arison. Owner B is Dan Gilbert.

  • Frank

    LeBron does The Decision for charity, and then the charity gets less than half the money he raises? So he can pocket $3,000,000 for himself and his friends?

  • http://www.facebook.com/randlemanb Bradley Randleman

    I am also a Clevelander but take on the situation differs from yours. First of all, Lebron James is arguably the greatest athlete to wear a Cleveland uniform of any sport. I for one could not believe that we had such a special player. He was worshiped here…he was going all out his rookie contract. When he wouldnt sign for the max amount his second contract, the writing was on the wall! Then he got openly disrespectful to the city showing up at games rooting for the other team…with the other teams colors on. NO ONE has done that before him or since! And the suggestion that they wouldnt put players around him is BS…especially since a lot of the players were hand picked by Lebron himself! And to your comment about Akron and Cleveland…I work in a Cleveland hospital with a department full of Akronites! Even they say Lebron is a b**** for what he did… Akron is a stones throw away! The truth of the matter is, Lebron is a bandwagon rider himself! He said he never rooted for Cleveland teams…he rooted for Cowboys and the Yankees…bandwagon all day!! He couldnt get any real players to come to Cleveland because players didnt respect Cleveland and therefore didnt respect HIM! So he resolved to leave Cleveland! I dont what anybody says…you cant blame Dan Gilbert for being mad! He had to watch his employee, the greatest player in the game just give up…a couple of times!! A doctor whose locker was next to mines in the E.R. told me, that Lebron told Dan Gilbert that he was staying in Cleveland…this doctor went to all of the games…had seats behind the bench…knew a lot of the coaches personally! Then the decision happened and the rest is history!!

  • Liam

    What about wade, kg, Duncan, Durant, dirk and Nash? Why’d you leave them out?

  • Liam

    No one booed MJ either

  • Liam

    Durant wouldn’t want to play with wade though

    Or lebron

    Or Kobe

    That’s his competition

  • Bandwagonfan

    Man team really sucks. Shaq? Hes old. Lebron all alone. Let see how longkyrie will last in the crappy cavaliers

  • Bandwagonfan

    Actually kobe being like that is cool.lol . But i also think that lebron haters just mad cus hes so good .

  • Bandwagonfan

    yea he did his best. Now hes a free agent and he should either retire or stay in cavs?

  • Bandwagonfan

    Your good man. Too bad not everyone in cleveland use logiclike u

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