I strongly disagreed with Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s letter to fans of the team after free agent LeBron James announced his intentions to sign with the Miami Heat during a one-hour televised fiasco on ESPN.
I also strongly disagree with Jesse Jackson sticking his nose somewhere it doesn’t belong.
On Monday, Jackson played the race card as he so frequently does by saying that Gilbert sees James as a “runaway slave” and that his letter to Cavs’ fans put the player in danger.
You’ll get no argument from me when Jackson said Gilbert’s comments regarding James’ decision were “mean, arrogant and presumptuous.”
But Jackson didn’t stop there, saying that Gilbert had a “slave master mentality.”
By saying that Gilbert is a slave master suggests Jackson believes all NBA franchise owners are one in the same, making his comments equally presumptuous and more importantly, hypocritical.
Jackson doesn’t know how to address any situation involving people of different skin colors without making it a racial issue.
That’s his game and it’s a tired one at that.
Over the years he’s proven incapable of keeping his mouth shut on subjects he knows little about, and when it comes to the NBA and sports in general, Jackson doesn’t know any more than the average fan does.
In fact, he likely knows less.
Jackson also called Gilbert’s comments an attack on all NBA players and said the owner should face a “challenge” from the league and the players’ association.
The only challenge here is trying to figure out why Jackson believes that attacking Gilbert is okay, but the owner attacking James was wrong.
Late Monday, NBA commissioner David Stern responded to Jackson’s comments, tempering his words as if he were a politician.
“Equally imprudent, I believe, are the remarks of my good friend Jesse Jackson which purport to make this into a racial matter. However well-meaning Jesse may be, on the premises on this one, he is, as he rarely is, mistaken.”
Stern was partially correct in saying Jackson made James’ decision a racial matter, but he couldn’t have been more wrong by saying he was well-meaning.
Jackson is seldom well-meaning, frequently mistaken and rarely on point about anything.
At the center of this of course is James self-aggrandizing announcement that should never have happened.
Stern commented on the “decision,” calling last week’s ESPN special “ill-conceived, poorly produced and badly executed.”
But Stern was nowhere to be found before the special was aired.
And therein lies the problem. James, a 25-year-old kid, was allowed to proceed with an ill-conceived idea and not one adult – specifically Stern – had the good sense to prevent him from doing it.
And the end results have left James, Gilbert, Jackson and Stern all looking like buffoons.
