The Cleveland Cavaliers won their thirteenth game of the season on Wednesday night as the Wine and Gold outscored the Sacramento Kings by 10 points in the second half, ultimately winning 97-93.
Evidently, said 13th win was largely coveted. Not only is it a prime number (which is inherently cool), setting the stage for a potential 17 total wins for the season, but 13 is also exactly one more win than Yahoo! Sports’ Kelly Dwyer had predicted in his team preview back in the early fall. Twitter-using Cavalier fans of all shapes and sizes took to the e-streets, pointing fingers at Dwyer in celebration of this the magical accomplishment, understandable on the basis a home team victory.
What was not great was that Cavaliers’ principle owner Dan Gilbert was one of those pointing fingers, potentially taking things a bit too far.
Launching some unfiltered shrapnelat Dwyer, Gilbert responded to assuming Cavalier fans in the form of retweets: “Who is Kellie Dwyer?” Gilbert asked. “Really, how long has Kellie been writing? I’ve never heard of her.”
As many Cavalier fans know, Dwyer is a longtime contributor – recently-named editor – of Yahoo! Sports’ NBA blog “Ball Don’t Lie.” He is also the man who, despite his seemingly political-based disdain for Gilbert as a person and businessman, forecasted the Cavaliers to win 12 games on the basis of a complete tear-down operation. The Cavs instead managed to produce the league’s worst record to date merely based on injuries and an influx of undrafted rookies earning substantial playing time; a similar endpoint just via alternative routes.
Dwyer has often been criticized (mostly by Clevelanders and fans of the Cavaliers) for letting his personal bias of Gilbert get in the way of his writing – he recently criticized the Cavaliers for trading Mo Williams for Baron Davis though the move was made predominantly for the sake of acquiring an unprotected lottery selection, a move which many pundits (ESPN’s John Hollinger and Chad Ford, for instance) would applaud. Dwyer has stated that Cleveland and Cavalier fans alike deserve better than Gilbert (citing the perceived mishandling the LeBron James situation, his letter on the night of The Decision, etc), though many continue to tand by their team’s owner as he continues to achieve a complete rebuild.
Gilbert has fielded many questions, most early on in the season, about Dwyer’s 12-win prediction. The Cleveland Plain Dealerinterviewed Dwyer several weeks ago to discuss the piece that is still widely discussed despite the season nearing end. There is always a chance that Gilbert – the owner of multiple business ventures – does not have the fortune of remembering the author of every Cavs-related piece that has been penned, but to say that he is unaware of this specific publication would be considerably far-fetched.
Ramon Sessions produced 20 points, five rebounds and six assists in the Cavaliers’ first win in five games; Luke Harngody added 15 points and eight rebounds off of the bench. Unfortunately, it will be all for naught as the rest of the world will focus on the fact that 13 is somehow immensely greater than 12 (and we still have a three-win cushion!!) and that the team’s owner stooped to a potential lowest common denominator following the win.
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(Editor’s note: We often criticize those who hurl grenades in this lovely Internet of ours. And while this author does not think Gilbert was being sexist in his Tweets directed towards Dwyer, playing the “who is (s)he” card is a bit uncalled for given the journalist-journalism subject dichotomy.)
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(AP Photo/Thearon Henderson)
