Browns’ Mangini Not a Fan of Player Retaliation
December 1, 2010Jon & Paul Plus Baseball: The 3B Issue. Again.
December 1, 2010Filed from the confines of Cleveland, Ohio, Yahoo! Sports’ resident LeBron James misanthrope Adrian Wojnarowksi drops another bomb – this time, in the form of official findings that Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert has shelled out “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in a probe to find evidence of wrongdoing at the hands of Pat Riley and the Miami Heat.
Per Wojnarowski:
Gilbert has spent several hundred thousand dollars on the investigation and will spare no expense to uncover whatever evidence he can to take to the league office, two sources with direct knowledge of the probe told Yahoo! Sports. The law firm staff includes several former prosecutors with backgrounds in investigating and constructing cases, sources said. […]
As one league source told Yahoo! Sports: The Cavs are “determined to get everything out there. They’re not letting go of this. They’re not going to just let this die.”
As mentioned in multiple publications, Gilbert and the Cavaliers may find themselves in a bind with the league as they ultimately traded James to the Heat for a $14 million exception and multiple draft picks. There is no telling where this investigation leads, but one thing is for certain: Dan Gilbert is most certainly not “over” James’ departure.
While the vindication and business aspects of such a probe are understandable, these reports obviously do not bode well for an owner who continues to stress a New Expression and a team that is “moving forward.”
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Cavaliers probing Heat’s signing of James [Yahoo! Sports]
22 Comments
The eventual trade really should have no bearing on a tampering case, right? Tampering either did or did not occur no matter how the Cavs eventually chose to cope with LeBron’s decision to leave. The trade was all done retroactive to the damage of the alleged tampering. I am not a lawyer though. We’ll see.
If the typical punishment is loss of draft picks, etc., then it’s the perfect way to continually keep the Heat from picking up decent role players unless they overpay a lot in free agency, which they may be unwilling to do.
Perhaps Gilbert is just trying to make his promise to win first look good… by giving us time. 🙂
Another thing I just thought of is whether or not this investigation will overlap into Toronto / Chris Bosh territory. If Gilbert and the Cavs find enough dirt on Riley that might or might not include Bosh, it could turn into a 2 on 1 report for Toronto and Cleveland against Miami.
A probing not involving John Amaechi or Lance Bass?
Uh-oh Mr. Riley – looks like you’ve been caught.
Craig – I’d think the same re: whether it was tampering.
Is it weird to think it’d be easier to bust Bosh than Lebron?
@ Craig – I believe as the rules are currently structured, at least one team must bring the tampering charge to the Commissioner’s Office. If that team is the Cavs, the fact that they consummated a sign and trade with the team in question for the player in question would, I assume, undercut their ability to bring the case. According to the Woj article as I understand it, Gilbert’s plan is to simply dump all the evidence on Stern’s desk instead of formally bringing the tampering case as an organization. The hope would then be that Stern could not ignore this evidence in his role as Commissioner of the league.
Here’s an interesting wrinkle though – if a team does need to officially bring the charge, I could foresee a situation where Gilbert hands all of this stuff over to his good friend and supporter Mark Cuban. Cuban could then argue that the Mavericks were harmed by the tampering because they never had the opportunity to really pursue James through their own deal.
How I wish Gilbert and his good buddy Cuban would make the Dolans happier and richer…
I don’t see how the trade of LBJ underminds the Cavs case, if there is one. You have to remember, the Cavs were behind the 8 ball at that point. They had no ability to quickly investigate and bring tampering charges. They needed to make the best of a bad situation in a hurry. The trade enabled them to do that. It is only after all the dust had settled that the Cavs/Raptors/NBA could move forward and investigate.
I guess you can say that any action by Stern (and I seriously doubt there will be any – no one in the league front offices wants to open that can of worms) would be to punish the Heat rather than benefit the Cavs.
As a fan I don’t really care where this heads. The LeBron ship has sailed and I’m ready to move on. However, I can totally understand why Gilbert wants to continue this. His bottom line was completely damaged by the actions of the Heat and other parties. If it went down unfairly, then Gilbert should persue it.
This report is better than all the “we should chant…” and “we should boo…” stories combined.
If the heat cheated, that’s their problem. The cavs are in direct competition with them, and I’m glad gilbert is gonna call them on it.
I just hope gilbert has his house in order and isn’t throwing stones from the front porch of his glass house…know what I’m sayin?
Remember a couple of weeks ago when Windy was on the radio and he made a comment about knowing “something else” that he wasn’t going to divulge right now? This is complete speculation but maybe he’s not holding whatever this piece of information is for a potential book, but rather he expects to eventually be divulged to reveal what he knows in court if Gilbert continues to pursue this.
Regardless it could be an epic sideshow.
I’m not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, it would be extremely satisfying to have the league break up the Heat, suspend Lebron, Wade, Bosh and Riley. BUT I can’t imagine this helping the Cavs cause in any way. It’s not like this would open the door to LeBron re-signing in Cleveland or help lure potential free agents if our owner is so vindictive.
On the other hand, the principle involved might be too important for Gilbert to pass this by. If players and GMs are actively colluding during the season than that’s something the league needs to punish, stop and prevent so it NEVER happens again.
Tampering potentially hurts every other owner. I had the same thoughts about Mark Cuban. Cuban reportedly was texting with LeBron in the window when it was legal to pursue him. So did NY, NJ, CHI, CLE, on down the line. There is no telling what harm is done to all sorts of teams if Gilbert finds a smoking gun or two. Even if by some strange circumstance the Cavs can’t pursue the case all on their own, I am guessing it is in the interest of many in the league to bring the charges.
Dan Gilbert is indicative of the competitive nature of many of these owners. Cuban is probably the most competitive, but you have to think guys like the Maloof brothers wouldn’t want a bunch of shady things going down in the league either.
Tampering puts every one of those guys behind the eight ball, and none of them will be particularly happy to allow Pat Riley to play by his own set of rules.
Of course, again, I am speculating a whole lot here.
Heck yeah. Don’t we want an owner willing to push the envelope in every way? Gilbert is not blame-less in the drama (like Belle said, when LBJ doesn’t call for 6 weeks, you got to realize something is up). If this drags down the Heat, so be it. Best case, we get some help in some ways. If we get further compensation from the Heat, even better.
Just because we’re moving forward emotionally, doesn’t prohibit the organization from using every piece of leverage from THe Decision to assist us going forward. If not, then they are a bunch of saps.
And 1 more thing, when the Lockout happens this summer, the owners are pushing foremost for FIXED LABOR COSTS (hard cap). This will neuter the Heat further as the Big 3 (who already took some pay cuts) will be forced to take further reductions, or realize that Big 3 is not functional in the future salary cap environment (unless 1 of the 3 is on rookie scale). Picks – although they take time to develop – will hold even greater value as a means of roster control, budget control, and assets. Keep going Dan.
This situation has handstung the Cavs for years. Because LeDonkey wouldn’t sign an extension other players wouldnt come here. The three stooges knew 3 years ago they were playing together. I love Dan’s passion. Go get’em Dano and nail the Heat to the wall.
If anything came of this, could this just make the Heat forfeit draft picks that they were already trading to the Cavs or the Raptors anyway?
i like how Gilbert is hiring a professional legal team to do this. He is going to put together such a strong case that Stern has two choices:
1. take the legal team’s findings and launch a tampering investigation.
2. deny Gilbert has any case and do nothing. In this case, you can be sure that Dan Gilbert will send all the info they have procured to the press faster than you can say Wikileaks. From there, the court of public opinion will have no choice but to tar and feather all of those involved.
This has absolutely enormous potential to change the NBA as we know it. And I can see other owners chipping in their money and support once this gains traction.
@ Saggy – exactly
All the mid-market teams know this crap could happen to them too. The economic fallout is going to be huge on player salaries too.
The guys on DSN were saying that if Stern does nothing it could go to a federal level, like the baseball cheats. I haven’t read anything confirming this but could get interesting if Stern’s hand is forced to do something about this.
At this stage one outcome is certain: Gilbert will NOT be invited to the bar mitzvah of Mickey Arison’s grandson.
[…] timed, on Wednesday evening, the NBA world caught wind of a legal probe involving Dan Gilbert and the possible tampering of LeBron James at the hands of the Miami […]